This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Saint Death’s Herald will be released on April 22, 2025.

Saint Death’s Daughter was my favorite novel of 2022, so there was really no question about whether I’d read the sequel. The only question is when it would come out. Three years later, Saint Death’s Herald by C.S.E. Cooney is here. 

Saint Death’s Daughter stars Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones, a necromancer with an allergy to violence that finds herself the heir to an extremely complicated family legacy, with financial and moral debts aplenty. It’s a long book with excellent prose and a tone that adeptly balances the vibes of the cinnamon roll lead and her weightier circumstances. It’s a book I’d heartily recommend as a standalone, but it does leave one nagging detail to be handled in the sequel. Enter Saint Death’s Herald. 

[Note: while this is a sequel review, I have endeavored to avoid spoilers for either book in the series]

Saint Death’s Herald switches perspectives much more frequently than the first book, opening with Lanie’s quarry before shifting back to the lead and her traveling companion. It’s an opening that quickly established the stakes of the chase while injecting plenty of levity via Lanie’s banter with her partner. The result is a book that hooked me fast. 

Unfortunately, there really is just one major plot arc in Saint Death’s Herald, and once it becomes obvious that it’s going to cover the full book, it robs the story of a lot of tension. There are some heart-pounding moments in the first half—the midway climax particularly stands out—but it’s hard to get too invested in defeating the villain when he’s just going to find a way to wiggle himself out of trouble and set up another confrontation down the line. There are only so many variations of “almost catch your quarry only to see him slip through your fingers,” and Saint Death’s Herald goes back to the well a few too many times. I suspect this would’ve been better as a novella-length side quest, but there just aren’t enough storylines for a full novel. 

On the plus side, the writing quality is really high, making an engaging read out of something that could’ve easily turned tedious. And the other major selling point here is the ending. Saint Death’s Daughter was almost perfectly satisfying as a standalone, but Saint Death’s Herald rectifies the almost and gives the story the ending I would’ve liked to see it have in the first place. 

I believe there’s another book planned, and I’m not sure exactly how Saint Death’s Herald will serve in the ultimate trilogy structure. It doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s supposed to set up another book, so maybe it’s meant to tie up loose ends to pave the way for an unrelated adventure. If so, I’m certainly very open to giving book three a shot. But while Saint Death’s Herald is well-written and provides a last bit of closure absent in the first book, it runs longer that it should and doesn’t feel like a must-read for Saint Death’s Daughter fans. 

Recommended if you like: Lanie going on a side quest.

Can I use it for Bingo? It’s arguably hard mode (and definitely at least regular mode) for Gods and Pantheons, and it’s a 2025 Release that’s a Book in Parts and features a LGBTQIA Protagonist and a Stranger in a Strange Land. I don’t think this is an especially good fit for Parent Protagonist, but if you haven’t yet read Saint Death’s Daughter, it is.

Overall rating: 15 of Tar Vol’s 20. Four stars on Goodreads.