Thara himself, as a result of his interactions with the living necessitated by his witnessing for the dead, is able to resolve some issues from his past that have left him guilt-ridden and socially isolated. In the course of these events he also reconciles an estranged grandfather and granddaughter and is called on to help investigate an airship explosion.įinally the serial wife-slayer is found and arrested, while the issue of the will fortuitously leads to identification of the opera singer's killer. Afterwards a trial by ordeal in the form of a night vigil in a haunted ruin clears Thara's political difficulties. For his own safety, the city's prince sends him out of town to deal with a ghoul manifestation in a remote village. Progress on these cases is stalled when Thara is tasked with resolving the matter of a forged will, and earns the enmity of the politically influential forger. The missing woman, meanwhile, is found to be but the latest of several victims of an elusive serial killer who has been marrying and murdering heiresses for their fortunes. The body turns out to be that of a popular but unsavory opera singer whose selfishness, thievery, penchant for blackmail and exploitation of her patrons has left scores of possible suspects.

Through his ability to communicate with the recently dead he resolves inheritance disputes, identifies nameless murder victims, and is sometimes able to bring justice to the latter by identifying their killers.Ĭurrently, while trying to find a woman who has vanished, possibly killed by her husband, he is presented with a new case, discovering the identity of a recent drowning victim. In the wake of his service for the emperors, the formerly disgraced Prelate of Ulis and Witness for the Dead Thara Celehar resumes his duties in the city of Amalo, far from Court.

The book was first published in hardcover and ebook by Tor Books in June 2021, with an audio version issued simultaneously by MacMillan Audio and narrated by Liam Gerrard a British edition was issued in trade paperback and ebook by Solaris in July of the same year with Liam Gerrard again narrating the audiobook. The Witness for the Dead is a fantasy novel written by the American author Sarah Monette under the pseudonym Katherine Addison, set in the same world as her award-winning earlier novel The Goblin Emperor.

Katherine addison witness for the dead