J.V. Jones continues to enthrall readers of her epic dark fantasy series A Sword of Shadows. The aptly titled fourth novel, Watcher of the Dead, continues the story where it left off with Raif in possession of Loss as shadowy forces and groups continue to scheme and fight. The darkest novel in the series so far Watcher of the Dead masterfully draws the readers focus to the strife and hardship that all characters are enduring as the prison on the Endlords and their armies continues to crumble. A sense of a held breadth is the feeling the reader is left with as you know devastation and death will be falling shortly upon all of the North, regardless of the steps being taken to prevent it.

Unlike a lot of epic fantasies where the cast grows to such an extent that it seems to become unwieldy to the author, J.V. Jones masterfully keeps the story flowing with swift moving chapters that although contain different characters and settings always have the same dark but not yet hopeless mood. Upon completing the book you may wonder what is happening with the few characters that didn’t appear in Watcher of the Dead, however in no way do you feel that the story was incomplete or lacking in any way.