From the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, the inspiration for HBO’s True Blood, comes “a gripping, twisty-turny, thrill ride of a read” (Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author) following a young gunslinging mercenary on deadly mission through the American Southwest. In a fractured United States, a new world where magic is acknowledged but … States, a new world where magic is acknowledged but mistrusted, a young gunslinger named Lizbeth Rose takes a job offer from a pair of Russian wizards. Lizbeth Rose has a wildly fearsome reputation but these wizards are desperate. Searching the small border towns near Mexico, they’re trying to locate a low-level magic practitioner believed to be a direct descendant of Grigori Rasputin.
As the trio journey through an altered America–shattered into several countries after the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression–they’re set on by enemies. It’s clear that a powerful force does not want them to succeed in their mission. Lizbeth Rose has never failed a client, but this job may stretch her to her deadly limits.
“Immersive, involving, suspenseful and intriguing, with a main character you’ll love” (Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author), An Easy Death is a fast-paced thriller of the highest order.
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Immersive, involving, suspenseful, and intriguing, with a main character you’ll love.
A girl with a gun took me for a ride!
I didn’t read the blurb on Charlaine Harris new book, An Easy Death . If I had, I’d have realized Charlaine was constructing an alternate universe and that this was a dystopian adventure mixed with magic. Nope, I simply plunged in, expecting something along the lines of her other series–and was blown away!
Like many of Harris’s novels, Charlaine builds her world gradually, starting with the ordinary–a pretty girl getting a haircut to spite her boyfriend, and because her neck is hot. And then you discover that the world is profoundly different, slightly off its axis, and the gunslinger heroine you’ve been getting to know is a woman of rare courage and true grit.
An immersive page-turner by a mistress of the craft! Highly recommended.
A gripping, twisty-turny, thrill-ride of a read.
Charlaine Harris has never once disappointed me. I started with Lily Bard, followed along with Sookie Stackhouse and met Aurora Teagarden, visited with Harper, fell in love with all the quirky folks in Midnight (including guest appearances), and now I’m right here for Gunnie Rose. As always, the world building in the newest entry is rich, the characters have personality, and the pacing keeps me engaged. I simply LOVE every book she writes.
A gritty, action-filled story, An Easy Death is an alternate history Western with a touch of magic. Gunny Rose, the tough but sympathetic protagonist, gives us a clear-sighted look at her world as she works to complete her contract and keep her clients alive.
I was looking for something a little different to read and spotted this one–and it was exactly what I was looking for. An action-packed page turner that is a breeze to read, I like Charlaine Harris’s new series about Lizbeth Rose, a gun for hire. The alternative history is fascinating and the setting stark and dangerous. I can’t wait for the next book. A bit of mystery, a thread of romance and enough twists and turns that you won’t be able to put it down.
When a master of her craft offers to tell you a story, let her. The results are dazzling.
Lizbeth Rose is a gun for hire. She works with a group who provides protection services to those who need to travel in the fractured United States. Nicknamed Gunnie Rose, she has built quite the reputation for herself. She is well known for her quick reflexes and fearlessness.
When she accepts the job of two Russian wizards to be their guide and protection on their quest to save the King, she finds that all is not what it seems. On a quest to find answers herself, she vows to follow through till the end. What she doesn’t expect is the amount of people out to kill her charges. Will Lizbeth survive this quest? Or will this be her last job?
I want to start this off by saying that I am a huge Charlaine Harris fan. HUGE Fan!!! I have read all her books, some more times than others, but all of them more than once. With that being said, I did not like this book as much as her other books. I am not saying I didn’t like it, but I didn’t love it. It was still an excellent read, but I found it below par for her.
True to Charlaine form, this book offers a very original and unique world. The characters are original and interesting. The story line itself is very different from anything I have read in a while. This book falls in the Fantasy genre. It has a lot of wizardry, which some consider paranormal. The story was steady paced, but the time line seemed off. It was written as if it were in the old west days, but there are cars and buses. So this to me was a tad confusing.
I did like Lizbeth’s character. She is smart, strong and determined. She is loyal to a fault and speaks her mind. She doesn’t trust easily. She is special and I think that towards the end of the book she starts to realize how special she really is.
The other characters in the book are very interesting and I am intrigued by them. Overall this is a wonderful and unique read. I will look forward to seeing what else is in store for this series.
Charlaine Harris has a rich and varying catalogue of urban fantasy and mystery series, mostly set in present-day small American towns with peculiar people. Gunnie Rose, her latest series, is a refreshing exception to this.
The series starts with An Easy Death. It’s set in post-apocalyptic alt-history America of the Great Depression era in the 1930s. The United States has collapsed after a series of events and been divided into several countries or annexed by its neighbours, Canada from the north and Mexico from the south. The east coast is part of England and the west coast forms a new Holy Russian Empire, after the Tsar fled there to escape the revolution of the 1918. The rest have formed Dixiland in the south, New America in Midwest and Texoma in southwest.
Texoma is poor and lawless, a new wild west where gunslingers rule and bandits prey on travellers on poorly maintained roads. Lizbeth (Gunnie) Rose is nineteen, but an experienced gunslinger. She’s part of a group who offers protection to people who need to travel the lawless roads. But everything goes wrong and she finds herself without a crew.
In need of employment, she accepts a job to protect two wizards from the Holy Russian Empire where magic is everyday thanks to Rasputin. They are looking for a man Gunnie knows for a fact is dead, because she’s killed him—not that she’s about to reveal it to them. Curious to find out what they want with him, she sets out on a long and perilous journey across the border to Mexico.
This was a good start to a series. The world was interesting and the plot fast-paced and full of action. Gunnie was a cynical and resourceful protagonist, oddly likeable despite never doing anything nice. The first person narrative left the side characters slightly distant, but they made a good counterpart to her, although I didn’t see Eli in the romantic light she did—the opposite. There was a lot of graphic violence and talk of rape, which sort of worked in its context, but after a while I became desensitized and it stopped being effective. Nevertheless, I liked the book a lot and will continue with the series.
If you liked Charlaine’s Midnight series and Dead Until Dark series, you will love this. Her world building is excellent and realistic. I felt like I was stepping into another dimension.
A little ways into An Easy Death, I wondered if I liked it enough to finish. The world Harris has created is exceedingly strange, an alternate history in which the assassination of FDR causes the US to disintegrate into several autonomous regions, some of them lawless and dangerous. The area that was once California has been claimed by the Russian czar, who had fled the communist revolution. To me, this stuff is weirder than the existence of magic and magicians. I’ve encountered magic in numerous fantasies, but never a world like the one in An Easy Death.
Lisbeth Rose, a “gunnie” (hired gun) and resident of Texoma, takes a job to protect a pair of Russian magicians as they search for a mysterious man. She soon discovers the job isn’t as straightforward as it seemed and she will need all her gun fighting skills to survive.
I’m glad I kept reading. Harris makes this strange world familiar and altogether believable. Her characters, as usual, are tough, smart, and endearing. Even the villains have their good points. I’m looking forward to the sequel.
Loved the gritty, western setting and the challenges this character has to face and overcome! Looking forward to the next Gunnie Rose adventure!
I revisited this book because the first go round I couldn’t finish it. I fell asleep multiple times listening and it wasn’t because the narrator didn’t do a good job. She did . As a book club book for the month I forced my way through it. I have to say I am so disappointed. I love C.H.’s books. Sookie stack house series and the grave series, I adore. This book just falls flat for me. I was bored through the majority of the book. There were a few spots where I though oh this is going to get good but there’s no climax or major wow moment in the book. It’s a lot of the same thing and just not for me.
A wonderful book by a fantastic author.
Her imagination is inspiring and unexpected. She is able to pull dramatic tension out of thin air
My catnip is short, kickass heroines (and anyone who knows me would know why.[g]) I loved this first in a new series set in an alternate history North America and featuring Lizbeth “Gunnie” Rose, a gun for hire who works in the old US Southwest escorting people and cargo through dangerous terrain.
US history as we know it ends in the 1930s with the assassination of newly elected president Franklin Roosevelt and the country devolves into chaos with White Russians taking over the west coast (and they have magic to assist them), Britain regaining its 13 colonies minus Georgia, the Old South forming a new country called “Dixie” and so on. Oh, and the native Americans and Mexico have seized back much of their land in the west.
Liz is young, but not naive, and has secrets of her own to keep as she takes on new, mysterious Russian clients. I loved the roller coaster ride of violence, a little romance, danger and intrigue and can’t wait to read the next Gunnie Rose entry from a master storyteller!
Holy. Cow. Whatta ride.
I loved Lizbeth’s pluck and her loyalty to family and job. There’s nothing halfway about this Gunnie—she’s all in!
While I admired her can-do attitudes, it was Lizbeth’s softer moments that stayed with me long after the last page was turned. I particularly adored the line after the successful delivery of a difficult crossing and the loss of three dear friends…she finally has a moment alone to bathe. Afterwards she turned in circles her arms held out so that “the air could feel how clean I was.”
I’m off to buy the next book in this intriguing alternate timeline series.
Well, I loved this! I have been a huge fan of Charlaine Harris’s work but I haven’t picked up any of her new books since the Sookie Stackhouse series ended. I have re-read a couple of the early Sookie Stackhouse books but I guess I was more than a little upset by how that series ended so I took a break from her work. I decided that it was time to give her books another chance and I must say that I am very happy that I picked up this book. It was an incredibly enjoyable read from beginning to end.
This book’s setting is an alternate America in the 1930s. America has been broken up into several different countries and some areas are rather wild. Lizbeth Rose works as a gunnie, or hired gun. She takes her job seriously and will do whatever it takes to complete her mission. She finds herself without a crew and decides to take on a job offered to her by two Russian wizards.
This story was really exciting and there is a ton of action to go around. Gunnie Rose seems to be able to protect her charges very well even when they are not cooperating. I loved Gunnie Rose. She is a little rough around the edges but she is incredibly smart and knows when to keep her mouth shut. She never stops trying no matter how the odds are stacked against her. Eli and Paulina were also wonderful characters. Paulina and Gunnie didn’t always see eye to eye which made for some rather interesting scenes.
I would highly recommend this book to others. I loved the Old West setting along with the alternate world that is very different than what is in the history books. This book was filled with action, wonderful characters, a bit of romance, and an interesting mystery. I cannot wait to read more of this exciting series.
This was quite the unconventional story. The best way to describe this is that it had the feel of an old western with a more modern society. It was what western would feel like in todays world without the advancement of technology and a lot of fantasy thrown in.
What I loved about that, was it gave us a heroine that is a gunslinger, or more known as a gunnie in this book. Her skill with guns was pretty impressive. This 19 year old seemed to just have the right instincts that kept her alive in impossible situations. Just that part alone had me glued to the pages.
The weirder side of this story was the Russians. They were constantly referred to as grigoris. There is a battle of the Russian royal family going on and they hire Lizbeth to guide and guard two grigoris as they track the descendant of a certain family line. They have magical powers that seem very dark and a bit frightening to what they can do.
The combination of the magical powers and Lizbeth’s skills with her guns was actually pretty fascinating. It was a weird story, but I liked it. I’m actually pretty excited to start the next book in the series. There is no cliffhanger. This could be read as a standalone.
AN EASY DEATH by Charlaine Harris is the first book in the Gunnie Rose series. This was an exciting start to a new series that spans genres. It is a western, an urban fantasy, an alternate history, a thriller and it contains magic.
Franklin Roosevelt was elected President, but assassinated prior to taking office. The vice-president dies of influenza, the banks crashed followed by a large drought and massive influenza. With the population decreased, the government was not able to protect itself and other countries grabbed pieces of America. Additionally, this is a world where magic exists and is mistrusted by many.
With this alternative history, we meet our protaganist Lizbeth Rose who lives in the southwester county now known as Texoma. She is a young gunslinging mercenary who protects and moves people and/or cargo. Within this world, the story progresses rapidly with Lizbeth’s skills constantly tested.
Charlaine Harris is one of my favorite authors and she did not let me down with this unique start to a new series. The worldbuilding is fantastic and the characters are compelling. Lizbeth’s motivations are believable and well-drawn and the secondary characters were well-rounded and enhanced the story. The plot twists were believable but mainly unexpected. The story moved at an appropriate pace. The scenes were well described and gave me a clear sense of place.
I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. If you like blended genre books, then this may be a book that you would enjoy.