Cassidy runs Trifles and Folly, an antique shop, with
Teag while secretly using her psychometric powers to ensure dangerous magical
items are quietly squirrelled away where they can cause no trouble. It also
means she’s in a good place to see when the ghosts of Charleston are getting
riled up
And when it does it heralds a major new threat come to
town – but this monsters and its terrifying, apocalyptic minions are not just a
threat to the city, but a very personal threat to Sorren, her vampire protector
and mentor as well
I find myself faced with the same issue I have with this
author’s other books – because there’s a lot I like about this series. I really
like the world setting. I love the whole concept of trying to control magical
artefacts that may cause damage either inadvertently or purposefully by unscrupulous
people.
I really like how ghosts are such a large part of the
book as well – it’s rare to see ghosts to be such a major emphasis in an Urban
Fantasy novel and I do like the novelty of it. I also like how the ghosts are
worked into the setting – Charleston – and history. And here we have another
unique element – it isn’t sanitised. For whatever reason, a not-insignificant amount
of Urban Fantasy is set in the south of the US, with lots of immortal beings
all straining real hard to pretend slavery wasn’t a thing. This book doesn’t do
that – the haunted streets of Charleston is populated by many of the horrors
and scars of the city’s history. I like that, I like that a lot.
I like the potential richness of this series with so many
different magic systems, vampires, ghosts, demons and even hints of many more. I
also really like how restrained the series is. Sometimes you have a book series
that has taken the kitchen sink approach to the supernatural and they decide to
include ALL THE THINGS. This book doesn’t – only what is relevant is present
and most of that focuses on a few magic users, the ghosts that populate the
city and the core characters. I appreciate the restraint.
And I like the characters. I like Cassidy who, as
I said in the last book, is skilled and capable, powerful without being
super powered, with good relationships and good friends. I like Teague – an openly
gay characters who manages to dodge a lot of stereotypes and have a very
original (albeit rather convoluted) magic. We do have a number of very
powerful, respected and capable Black characters who make regular appearances –
but they are called on for their woo-woo. Yes, everyone has woo-woo in this
book, but there’s more to Teague and Cassidy and Sorren than their magical
nature – while the Mambos and Root workers are, well, Mambos and Root Workers.
I don’t know much more about Mrs. Tiller than the fact she’s a root worker. I
don’t know much more about Lucinda than the fact she practices voodoo. Yes, she’s
a professor – in voodoo. It kind of defines her character. I think in book
three I really need to see more of Lucinda: her past, her history, her hobbies,
her work, her relationships. I want to see her do something that doesn’t
involve a Loa
Now the invocation of the Loa did seem to involve a
decent amount of research. Perhaps not more than you can do on google, but more
than just repeating the name “Baron Samedi” a few times and throwing rum and
cigars about.
So what’s my main issue with this book? Same as the other
two books I’ve read by this author – flabbiness!
This book is long and it feels long. There’s a whole
middle of the book where the characters are… “investigating” for what seems
like a painfully long time. And I’ve put investigating in quotation marks for a
reason – because they just seem to repeat the same things, learn the same
things and not really advance the story at all. There are points in the book
where I feel like Cassidy is going for a midnight stroll just daring for the
bad things to take a pop at her so we can have another fight scenes
And the fight scenes are well written, excellently paced
and nicely show off all the characters’ capabilities – and the ending fight
scene is epic. But there are so many of them and by about the 5th or
6th random encounter or midnight stroll or angry ghost or Nephilim
attack I kind of wanted to reach for the fast forward button. I think we just
had too many answers too early in the book… so why was everyone still asking
questions when we already knew?
Despite this, the book did manage to create a good sense
of suspense, of the characters facing a big bad ending that they had to hurry
to stop or all hell would break out with lots of good emotion because of that
and a nice, ominous, foreboding sensation: which is impressive given the
flabbiness. But oh the pacing in the middle nearly lost me.
