Dead Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison
Twenty years ago genetically altered tomotoes created an epidemic which almost wiped out the human race. During the resulting chaos several supernatural species frightened humans by revealing themselves in order to hold society together; since then humans and Inderlanders have developed an uneasy truce as they learn to live with each other.
Rachel Morgan is a witch and an Inderland Security Runner, a bounty hunter charged with bringing in rogue werewolves, Brimstone drug dealers, and tax-evading leprechauns, to name a few. Disgusted that her superiors are giving her increasingly mundane and petty cases, she decides to leave the I.S. and start her own runner service. Unfortunately, nobody who's left the I.S. has lived more than a few days, especially when they take two of the best agents with them. Now Rachel must rely on her own spelling talents and the unique abilities of her new partners, a living vampire afraid of losing her soul and an annoying pixie who hates fairies, in order to stay alive and discover who wants her dead.
Harrison has created a rich and wonderful world in modern Cincinnati after the Turn, as the killer tomato era is called, and populated it with well thought out magical species, complete with legal systems, hidden agendas, and human-seeming foibles. This is the first in a series packed with adventure, mystery, love, friendship, and smart aleck fun.
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