Alex Craft series

## Genre Information

Urban Fantasy
Ghost Whisperer

Mystery

 (Series Content Ratings Click on Explicit Ratings for details.)

## About the Series

* **Genres:** Urban Fantasy, Ghost Whisperer
* **Theme:** Witch, ghost seer, Para-PI, Death, Independent, lover's triangle
* **Narrative style**: First Person Narrative told by Alex Craft, protagonist.

## Series Description

Alex Craft is a grave witch, which means that she has the power to raise the shades of the dead—not ghosts (the disembodied spirits of the dead) but shades (the truth-telling memories of the dead). She operates her own business, called Tongues for the Dead, meaning that she helps the dead to speak. In the usual manner for UF heroines, Alex's magical powers grow stronger and more complex as the series progresses.

## Books in Series

**Alex Craft series**:

1. Grave Witch (Alex Craft Series Book 1) (2010)
2. Grave Dance (Alex Craft Series Book 2) (2011)
3. Grave Memory (Alex Craft Series Book 3) (2012)
4. Grave Visions (Alex Craft Series Book 4) (2016)
5. Grave Ransom (Alex Craft Series Book 5) (2017)
6. Grave Destiny (Alex Craft Series Book 6) (2019)
7. Grave War (Alex Craft Series Book 7) (2020)

### Shorts, Anthologies and Guides

* ?.?. "Alex Craft and the Gingerbread House" ()
* 2.5. "Ruby Red" from Kicking It (2013)

## World Building

### Setting

Nekros City
Located in a territory between Georgia and Alabama. Nekros only came into existence at the "Great Awakening." It is 100 miles west of Atlanta.
### fantasy Elements

Paranormal PI, Witches, faeries, magic, Nulls, Black Magic, ghosts, shade, gargoyle, monsters, Aetheric energies, Chinese hairless dog, sorcerers, Faerie (land), Death, Faerie, mortal–paranormal politics, glamour, Winter Queen, voices from the dead, unaffiliated fae, glamour-infused drug,

### World

The series is set in the Nekros City in a territory that unfolded between Georgia and Alabama after the Magical Awakening occurred 70 years ago. Supernaturals (primarily witches and fae) in this world came out to the world at that time and have been living openly (if uneasily) with mortals ever since. After the Magical Awakening, "the veil between the Aetheric and mortal reality thinned. Magic was accessible, and a good third of the population proved capable of reaching it, of shaping it. When space unfolded, opening new areas, both the witches seeking a place where they could practice in peace and the norms who didn't want to associate with the magically inclined moved into the new territory." (Grave Dance, pp. 60-61) There were clashes among the groups at first, but witches and norms eventually settled safely in the city "because strange, long-forgotten legends were waking in the wilds." (p. 61) The human population is divided amongst norms (people without magical abilities), nulls (people who are unaffected by magic) and witches (people who can channel magic).

The city has several levels of law enforcement to maintain the peace:

* **Nekros City Police Department (NCPD)**: human crimes
* **Anti-Black Magic Unit (ABMU)**: NCPD department with forensic specialists who unravel spells
* **Fae Investigation Bureau (FIB)** - crimes involving the fae
* **Magical Crimes Investigation Bureau (MCIB)** - crimes involving magic of any kind
* **Organization for Magically Inclined Humans (OMIH)** - crimes involving witches
* **Ambassador of Fae and Human Relations (AFHR)** - heavier on public relations organization than law enforcement

Alex's two love interests are **Falin Andrews**, who is introduced as a police detective but turns out to be much more, and the man she calls **Death**—a soul collector who seems to have quite a crush on Alex.

### Protagonist

Alex Craft
is a grave witch, which means that she has the power to raise the shades of the dead—not ghosts (the disembodied spirits of the dead) but shades (the truth-telling memories of the dead). She operates her own business, called Tongues for the Dead, meaning that she helps the dead to speak. In the usual manner for urban fantasy heroines, Alex's magical powers grow stronger and more complex as the series progresses. Eventually, she learns that she is a planeweaver with the power to bring the mortal plane and the Aetheric plane together.
## Book Descriptions

1. Grave Witch (2010)
As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she’s on good terms with Death himself—who happens to look fantastic in a pair of jeans—nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high profile murder when she’s attacked by the ‘shade’ she’s raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around... To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something—though it’s certainly not his dislike of Alex—but Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics and to track down a killer wielding a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life...and her soul.
2. Grave Dance (2011)
Whoever said dead men tell no tales obviously never met Alex Craft. After a month spent recovering from a vicious fight with a **sorcerer**, grave witch Alex Craft is ready to get back to solving murders by raising the dead. With her love life in turmoil thanks to the disappearance of Fae Investigation Bureau agent Falin Andrews and a shocking “L” word confession from Death himself, Alex is eager for the distractions of work. But her new case turns out to be a deadly challenge. The police hire Alex to consult on a particularly strange investigation in the nature preserve south of Nekros City. The strange part: There are no corpses, only fragments of them. A serial killer is potentially on the loose, and Alex has no way to raise a shade without a body, so she’ll have to rely on the magic of others to find leads. But as she begins investigating, a creature born of the darkest magic comes after her. Someone very powerful wants to make sure the only thing she finds is a dead end—her own.
3. Grave Memory (2012)
When the dead need to talk, Alex Craft is always ready to listen**…** As a Grave Witch, Alex solves murders by raising the dead—an ability that comes at a cost, and after her last few cases, that cost is compounding. But her magic isn’t the only thing causing havoc in her life. While she’s always been on friendly terms with Death himself, things have recently become a whole lot more close and personal. Then there’s her sometime partner, agent Falin Andrews, who is under the glamour of the Winter Queen. To top everything off, her best friend has been forever changed by her time spent captive in Faerie. But the personal takes a backseat to the professional when a mysterious suicide occurs in Nekros City and Alex is hired to investigate. The shade she raises has no memory of the days leading up to his brutal ending, so despite the very public apparent suicide, this is murder. But what kind of magic can overcome the human will to survive? And why does the shade lack the memory of his death? Searching for the answer might mean Alex won’t have a life to remember at all ...
4. Grave Visions (2015)
Grave Visions by Kalayna Price is the much-anticipated fourth installment in the kick-ass urban fantasy series about Alex Craft, a grave witch who can communicate with the dead. — If you want to hear voices from the dead in Nekros City, you call Alex Craft. She's a Grave Witch with reasonable rates and extraordinary powers, who specializes in revealing the secrets of the dead. But now she's the one fighting to keep her own secret. She's not human—and her newly discovered heritage is causing havoc for her both in the human realm and in Faerie. But her status as an unaffiliated fae also makes her an ideal candidate to investigate a new street drug that has surfaced in several of the spaces between the human and fae worlds. This glamour-infused drug causes hallucinations that turn real—at least for a while and often with deadly consequences. Searching for the source of this drug—and its purpose—lands Alex front and center in the conflict brewing in Faerie and she must find answers before she's dragged so deep she loses her freedom.
5. Grave Ransom (2017)
Grave witch Alex Craft is no stranger to the dead talking. She raises shades, works with ghosts, and is dating Death himself. But the dead walking? That’s not supposed to happen. And yet reanimated corpses are committing crimes across Nekros City.
Alex’s investigation leads her deep into a web of sinister magic. When Briar Darque of the Magical Crimes Investigation Bureau gets involved, Alex finds herself with an unexpected ally of sorts. But as the dead continue to rise and wreak havoc on the living, can she get to the soul of the matter in time?
6. Grave Destiny (2019)
Grave witch Alex Craft can speak to the dead, and that makes her a dangerous enemy for anyone with something to hide...
Alex is still trying to come to terms with her changing powers and her growing ties to Faerie when a case she’d rather avoid falls right into her lap. A fae prince desperately needs Alex to investigate a politically sensitive murder. She reluctantly agrees to the case, taking FIB agent Falin Andrews along as her backup.
But as Alex begins to delve into the mystery, she realizes that the intricate web of alliances and intrigue in the Faerie courts is strained to its limits. War is about to break out, one that threatens to spill over into the mortal realm. This murder is tied right to the center of centuries-old arcane unrest, and if Alex isn’t careful she may follow the twisting path ahead of her right into her grave end.
7. Grave War (2020)
Grave witch Alex Craft has forged an uneasy truce with the world of Faerie, but she’s still been trying to maintain at least some semblance of a normal life in the human world. So it’s safe to say that stepping up as the lead investigator for the Fae Investigation Bureau was not a career path she ever anticipated taking.
When an explosion at the Eternal Bloom threatens to upend the fae who make their home in our world, Alex finds herself in charge of the most far reaching investigation she’s ever tackled. And it’s only her first week on the job. With the threats mounting and cut off from half her allies, Alex can’t wait on the sidelines and hope the fae’s conflicts stay contained within their borders.