Dead Witch Walking: Rachel Morgan, #1 -- Kim Harrison

Rachel Morgan is a bounty hunter in Cincinnati.  She's also a witch. For the most part, she goes after witches who are unlicensed and those who dabble in the black arts, because it takes a witch to catch a witch. 

Due to a whole lot of ugly departmental politics, Rachel breaks her contract with Inderland Security and quits.  If it'd just been her and her pixie sidekick*, it's unlikely that anyone really would have cared enough to make a stink -- but as Ivy Tamwood, a living vamp and an excellent bounty hunter, decides to leave with them, Rachel ends up with a price on her head.  Hence the title, Dead Witch Walking.

I'd been meaning to start this series for ages and ages, and I'm glad I finally did.  It's set in an alternate reality, where the human population dropped by a quarter due to a plague that stemmed from genetically modified tomatoes.  After the plague, the Inderlanders (witches, weres, vamps, fairies, pixies, etc.) made themselves known.  So there are a lot of interesting political and personal tensions, plus the usual sexual tension you'd expect in an urban action comedy fantasy romance horror novel.

Rachel is cranky, likable, impatient, tough and vulnerable, Ivy is cranky, somewhat scary at moments, and far-from-perfect, despite her grace and her sexual appeal and her strength and her intelligence.  I'm looking forward to reading much more about them and about their world.

Lots and lots of fun, recommended to those who liked the early Anita Blake novels (when the sex wasn't the main event) and to those who enjoy Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books.  In tone especially, it reminded me much more of the Dresden books.  But much girlier.

*Please don't tell him I called him a sidekick.  I think he'd be furious.  And there (judging from the book) are few things more annoying than a furious pixie.