The Corpse Thieves

Malykant Mysteries #5

by Charlotte E. English

Konrad Savast is the foremost and most secret servant of the God of Death. His job? To track down the foulest of murderers and bring them to The Malykt's Justice. No mercy. No quarter. Danil Dubin is a murderer. He knows this because he's been told — by the many witnesses to his crime. Only, he has no memory of it himself. It's part of a spate of similar killings, and Konrad must act. But how can he deliver The Malykt's justice to a man with no reason to kill, and no knowledge of his crime?

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Vampires

117 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 19, 2017

About the author

English both by name and nationality, Charlotte hasn’t permitted emigration to the Netherlands to change her essential Britishness. She writes colourful fantasy novels over copious quantities of tea, and rarely misses an opportunity to apologise for something. Spanning the spectrum from light to dark, her works include the Draykon Series, Modern Magick, The Malykant Mysteries and the Tales of Aylfenhame.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting story!

The Corpse Thieves
By Charlotte E English
This is book #5 in the series. This has even more interesting concepts added to this fantasy world! Love the imagination. We meet another interesting character, and more characters learn Konrad's secret. Wonderful series.

[David Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so glad to be back with Konrad, Optapi and Eetapi. I always find comfort reading Charlotte’s work as I always know I’ll enjoy it and she has such an imaginative mind you can’t but help love the story.

This Is the 5th book in the Malykant Mysteries series and we are back with Konrad..he’s having a bit of a slump. His job is to dispense justice on those who commit murder but everything is quiet.. you know it won’t last though.

The case is a little different this time. Although someone dies Konrad is not so sure of where the guilt lies and as such sets out to investigate. The lamaeni we discovered in a previous tale show their faces and we learn just how far one of their kind will take things.

The relationships that have built over the series continue and this really does add something to the tale. Konrad struggles with emotions but this struggle brings some depth to the dark and mysterious man. He doesn't want to admit how he feels and stores it up inside..sometimes you really feel if he just used his voice things might work out better but Konrad likes to do things the hard way.

For me, once again it’s a 5* story from Charlotte, she never lets me down. When I read the book it was like I had blinkers on..The whole world around me shut off and for a couple of hours spread over two nights I was in the author’s world and it’s just wonderful.

What Charlotte always gets right for me is the balance between plot and descriptive writing. She gives you the right amount of detail when needed but understands the plot of the story doesn’t require too much.

At 94 pages it’s a short story but it doesn’t feel like it. Charlotte’s work for me is always so developed I feel you actually read 3 times as much as she’s wrote simply because you take the time to really immerse yourself in the tale or read between the lines and replay moments from the previous books.

I’m no wordsmith, the only way I can describe why I enjoy Charlotte’s work so much is how easy the writing flows. The writing isn’t dumbed down but I’m never stuck wondering what a word means either. You're never stuck reading pages of dialogue then pages of detail what you get with these books is a well written and engrossing read from 1st page to last.

I do enjoy the author’s longer works but for me she’s Queen of the short story.

This is the best story yet for Konrad. I've already downloaded book 6 so can't wait to get to grips with it

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 – 4.5 Stars

The Corpse Thieves is the fifth book in the Malykant Mysteries series by Charlotte E. English. This is a fantastic, atmospheric paranormal mystery with lots of dark and dramatic tones which I loved. It has an historical setting with a Gothic Russian or Eastern European vibe. The world-building is highly original with dark and moody tones that really help to set the ‘atmosphere’ and make the story come to life.
Konrad Savast is The Malykant, the servant of the God of Death. His ‘job’ comes with some supernatural abilities, exceptional detective skills, wealth and standing in the community, as well as two bloodthirsty and macabre ‘familiars’, in the form of spirit serpents who are both prone to some petulant antics at times. It is Konrad’s job to seek ‘justice’ for the souls who have met their death prematurely, by being murdered. He investigates their death/s, using good old detective work coupled with some supernatural skills, and hunts down the killer/killers and ‘sends’ them to his master, The Malykt, the God of Death.
With murder investigation, mayhem, ghosts, tension, secrets, action, adventure, friendship, intensity, suspense, and so much more, this became quite a riveting read.
There are 12 books in this series, or three volumes each with four stories- and I read them all, back-to-back. The individual stories are quite short, being mostly under 100 pages each- which allowed me to devour the entire series quite quickly.

Happy Reading…

Thank you, Charlotte E. English!

[Geetha Krishnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this, Konrad has another bizarre case. People have attempted or killed other people, but the attackers have no memory of the incident and the weapons they used cannot be found. In an added twist, the corpses come back to life. Konrad is once again dealing with the lamaeni, the undead creatures who live off the energy given by the living. With Nanda's help, he has to find and capture the two lamaeni who have orchestrated the whole.

I loved this book and though Konrad is the Malykant with a lot of cool powers, more often than not, he's the one in trouble and Nanda have to save him. I rather liked it, tbh. He's powerful but not invincible and he needs help a lot of times.

If you love dark fantasy, mysteries and flawed characters, this is the perfect book for you.

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

These murder mystery cases just gets better and better!

I'm not sure how I felt about Dubin in the Malykant sight's for vengence, as it felt too obvious of a choice to snip the "love triangle" (so to speak) in the bud. Maybe? I don't know, maybe I'm being too cynical.

Tasha is quickly becoming a favourite of mine - she's so cheeky.

It was very much an "oh fuck" moment when Konrad got overtaken by Lazan and was not resurrected by The Malykant. So very interesting that the Shandrigal did though, very interesting.

[Manola Dobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Corpse Thieves

Interesting book. Konrad is Malykant but his Madter was lacking in this story. What does that mean for the future of Konrad as Malykant? Interesting!

[Berna · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars rounded up to 4.
Liked the plot of this book but the ending seemed confusing this time.

[Steven Tryon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charlotte English just keeps getting better, and so does this series. She also had way too much fun with the opening scenes, which is a lot to say about a book that is about exactly what the title says it is.

Read it, definitely, but do start at the beginning of the series. Each book stands alone, but the continuing narrative is compelling.

[Dua (in reading slump) ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a big fan of this one as much as the previous entries, which is reflected in how long it took me to get through. Writing was a bit choppy and repetitive. Perpetrators were, once again, people we know nothing about. At this point I'm more curious about the world and the lore than the mystery cases. And I love the banter between Konrad and Nanda.