Death's Messenger (Blood on the Reik #1) (Warhammer)

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Title: Death's Messenger
Series: Blood on the Reik
Author: Sandy Mitchell
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 416
Format: Kindle digital scan

Synopsis:

Rudy, the poor orphan who has been raised by the local forester, discovers signs of Beastmen near his village. At the same time, rot begins to afflict the crops and towns people as well.
A witch hunter comes to the village and a lot is revealed. A bunch of the villagers were chaos worshippers, including Rudy's adopted father. They had some plan in store for Rudi but the beastmen's attack changed things. The witch hunter is now after Rudi and a childhood acquaintance who is the daughter of a the local healer.
Once out of the village, things happen and the two young people have adventures until they are caught by the witch hunter. And the book ends.

My Thoughts:

I still don't know the difference between Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. I assume W is a fantasy series like the Forgotten Realms series and that the W40K is a scifi of the same. I tried some of the W40K and it didn't work for me, so I was hesitant to try plain old Warhammer.

It was alright. Not great, but not terrible. The first half of the book was all setup with very little happening and then whammo, once things got rolling, the 2 youngsters just couldn't stay out of trouble to save their lives. And the ending that was a complete cliff hanger? Nahhh, that didn't impress me.

Since I don't know anything about Warhammer, I don't know the significance, if any, of the title or the series. What is a reik? A person, a place, a thing?  Is Death a personification in the Warhammer world? Does he have agents sowing chaos out in the world? If so, why? And really, so what?  I have a bunch of options to choose from for series to read in the Warhammer so I am literally just pointing my finger and saying "I'll read YOU" and hoping for the best.

If anyone is a Warhammer fan, and has some advice, please feel free to chime in. I can use anything right about now.