A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris- (Pretty Good, but not a Wow)

A Longer Fall
by Charlaine Harris 
3/5 stars 
⭐⭐⭐


A longer fall is the story of Lizbeth Rose a "Gunnie" or hired gun, who is hired along with a few others in a crew to protect a mysterious chest on a journey into a southern country called Dixie in what seems to be an Alt-USA. The story depends heavily on the existence of people who are some type of wizard called Grigori, trained in the old Holy Russian Empire, descendants of Rasputin.

I liked the book OK, I felt it was well-written, but then it is by Charlaine Harris, who is the author of the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) books, so we know she has writing chops. 
The story moved along OK, but maybe I just suffered as a reader because this is book #2 and I have not had the opportunity to read book #1. Still, I do think books should be written to stand alone, and then enhance if you have read others in the series. 

I also felt that the concept of the Grigori and why their vests were so important needed more explanation, but maybe this was accomplished in book #1. Same point for a character named Dan that seems to have some importance towards the end of the story- I didn't understand who he was or why he mattered. 
I was also confused with the geography- A map of the various regions might be helpful- where is Dixie, Texoma, etc. I mean you have an idea from the names, but a map would be even better. 
I read an e-version, maybe a print version will have one. 

The action in the story moved along well, and action sequences were well-written, however, I know this author can write steamier bedroom scenes, so it must have been a conscious choice here to write the bedroom scenes in a very dry fashion. All in all this book was a fairly enjoyable read, not the worst or best of the year, but not bad. 

Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC of this book, my opinions and reviews are my own.