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Kalayna Price's first novel in the Alex Craft series, Grave Witch, is published this month. As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex 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. 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.

Below, Kalayna answers a few questions about her new novel:

Death is a (delicious!) romantic interest in your novel. What gave you the idea to write a book where the Grim Reaper shows his softer side?

Ideas are funny things and it is hard to say where they come from. For this book, the main character and Death both appeared in my head at the same time in an idea for the scene I distilled down to one sentence—the opening sentence of the book;

"The first time I encountered Death, I hurled my mother's medical chart at him."

The mentioned event became not only the springboard for their relationship, but for Alex herself as a character and the world where her stories occur. And, of course, Death had to be part of that world. Alex and Death's relationship isn't always a smoothest—after all, his appearance could mean that someone is about to die or just that he wants a cup of coffee—but I hope readers enjoy learning more about my favorite Grim Reaper.

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You've written an urban fantasy with nary a vampire! Was that intentional?

Yes, very much so. I love vampires and vampire stories—both the horrifically frightening variety and the dark and sensual kind—but I'm already writing a series with vampires. With the Alex Craft Novels I wanted to explore new ground for me and to play with different myths. While the world I've built in the series doesn't absolutely preclude the possibility of vampires, I currently have no intention of introducing them in the books.

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Your heroine, Alex Craft, can speak to the dead. If you could speak to one dead person, who would it be?

My first inclination is to say Shakespeare or some other person of great interest who is shrouded in mystery, but honestly, if I knew I could speak to only one dead person, I'd probably spend most of my life considering possibilities and holding onto my options.

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There's a really rich system of magic in Grave Witch. What kind of research or mythic traditions informed your writing?

I've always been fascinated with myths and folklore from around the world. What people believed, and the fact many of these beliefs can be found in one form or another throughout time and cultures, is amazing. At the time I envisioned Grave Witch, I was reading a lot of Victorian folklore and European haunting legends, but influences from other times and cultures can also be spotted in the book.

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Have you always been a writer?

I'm going to go with "yes" and "no" for this one. I've always told stories for the purpose of entertaining, even as a child, and I started my first "novel" when I was twelve—it was a terrible Tolkien-esque fantasy which was never fully begun let alone finished. But I didn't get serious about writing and the craft of storytelling until a few years ago. So that's my yes and no answer.

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What's your favorite word?

Xanthophobia, which is the fear of the color yellow. Why? Simple: it amuses me to no end that such a word exists.

Read an excerpt »

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