A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.

Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.

Guys I think I found a new fantasy author to love and gush over.

Where to begin?  I loved that this wasn't a story of absolutes--good, evil, right, wrong...practically everything in here is a shade of gray.  One person's helpful deed, is another person's horrible sin--but that doesn't mean it was either of those.  Gladstone spends a good chunk of the book building up the fact that everybody sees everything differently, but its the person with more power who decides which way is the 'right' way (this is illustrated very literally in the end).

I thought Tara was marvelous--kind of drunk on her power in the beginning (to an almost bad ending), but also partly resentful of how it separates her and how others just don't understand, she comes into her own (for good or ill) and finds a place that needs her (and maybe will appreciate her for it).

This is a very complicated book however.  Gladstone draws out explanations and motivations for as long as he can, revealing such things as how Tara got herself kicked out of the Hidden Schools (kind of, not really...its complicated, but it may have involved an explosion) until much later in the story in a mildly inconvenient moment.  This works well for the endgame, but for other things (the Gods' War?) it gets a bit irksome.  The characters act, talk and react as if its something the reader should know (like water is wet or fire is hot).

Murder Mystery, religious thriller, and fantasy--Gladstone blended all the elements of various genres quite well.  This is kind of like a Criminal Minds episode (if that was set in a world with magic and Gods talking to their acolytes mentally), there's a police procedural feel to the novel with Tara and co gathering facts and clues and investigating leads.  The pacing feels off however because again as a reader we don't know everything about the world, so something I found to be 'ah-ha! clue!' is easily dismissed because its just an everyday occurrence in the world.

The thing of it is, even those minor sort of complaints didn't really stop me from eagerly turning page after page.    By the end I understood quite a lot about the world, but I can't tell you how I know.  The casual, organic sort of way Gladstone conveys the world-building is wonderful.

I can't wait for book 2 (Two Serpents Rise, due out in July).