Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, #1) (Chess Putnam, #3)

by Stacia Kane

[Jo]

I've wanted to try a novel by Stacia Kane ever since I followed the Fangs, Fur and Fey group over on Livejournal years back. I found her posts on there just so fascinating, so my interest in her books was her rather than because they sounded like something I would enjoy (fortunately, they did sound my like my cup of tea as well). So I pulled Unholy Ghosts out of my TBR pile and got cracking. And it was brilliant!

I have to say, from the very beginning, I thought this would be a book I didn't like. Chess is a drug addict. For reasons I won't go into, I am so strongly opposed to drugs that there aren't even words. She was constantly taking various drugs, and enjoy the effect they had on her, and it made me angry. It made it very hard for me to warm to Chess, and made it very hard to read. It took me a lot longer to read than it normally takes me to read an adult urban fantasy simply for the drug taking. I just kept putting it down.

However, Chess' job and the situation she got herself into intrigued me, so I persevered with it and kept reading, and it was really good! A much darker read than I expected, taking part mostly in the dark gang ruled underworld of a world where ghosts can kill. The ghosts are only kept at bay by the Church, a dictatorial establishment that took over after people lost their belief in the government when the ghosts rose. When her drug dealer wants payment for the huge debt she's run up, he decides she can clear it by helping Banishing the ghosts from an old, unused airport he wants to reopen for his own uses. But when she stumbles on a black magic ritual and a human sacrifice on the airport grounds, she finds there's more than a Banishment on her hands.

The book almost works as a mystery as Chess tries to work out whats going on. Who did this ritual? Why? And who is the malevolent, creepy, hooded ghostly figure that seems to be following her around? It's seriously creepy, and there's so much going on! The action in the book has some physical action, but it's mostly magical, which makes it so much more suspenceful; how long does it take from deciding to swing a punch to actually make fist-to-face contact? Seconds. But to cast spells? This isn't Harry Potter, it's not simply waving a wand and uttering incantations, there's making the alter, the protection circle, the burning of the incrediants needed, things done in a precise order, and incantations said at the right time. It can take a fair few minutes, which isn't too good when some terrifying ghostie with outstretched hands and sharp pointed teeth is coming for you. It's seriously scary! Gave me the jitters!

All in all, an awesome book, and I can't wait to read the next in the series, Unholy Magic! I just know it's going to be awesome!

From Ink and Paper - fantasy review blog.