Dead Souls

by J. Lincoln Fenn

[kimbacaffeinate]

Fiona Dunn for all her career success hasn’t had the greatest go with relationships. When she sees her boyfriend get into a taxi with a blonde woman in pink when he is supposed to be on a business trip she falls apart. Feeling dejected she stumbles into a bar and orders a drink before realizing that she forgot her purse and keys to her apartment. She can just add those to the list of things that go wrong because Fiona is about to sell her soul to a faceless man named Scratch.

While the premise is nothing new, Lincoln twisted it and weaved in vibrant, complex characters to engage the reader. When Fiona awakens the next morning, she is completely flabbergasted that she sold her soul even when she discovers her wish was granted. Scratch controls a corps of dead souls in Oakland. All have given their soul and can recognize each other by a darkness or shadow surrounding them. Each carries a card from Scratch, that contains the date they sold their soul and the words Favor followed by a blank space. The favors have devastating consequences and we learn of some very infamous historical figures who owed the devil a favor making us cringe in anticipation. When your favor is called it will appear in the blank space.

Fiona befriends other damned souls. They meet in an old converted church. Ironically, the church is now a bar. They meet each week to share their woes an AA meeting for the damned. Eventually their conversation gets around to escaping their fates. Alejandro is their leader. A photographer who is the oldest damned of the bunch, through him Fiona learns and plots. When Fiona learns of the “double-deal”, she sets her mind to work.

Fiona is the perfect protagonist for this tale. She is flawed, successful, strong and clever. Yet she is insecure and at times desperate. She was easy to root for and identify with even when she is shocking. Fiona is looking for a way to outwit the devil, and get the happily ever after she wants.

We get to witness twists turns and high body counts as Fiona heads towards the day when her favor is called in. Lincoln makes this horror story seem plausible in today’s work by weaving in actual events and people when explaining the devil’s existence and man’s wiliness to sell his soul. As we get further into the story, favors are called and horrific tragedies make the news.

The narrator Julia Whelan was new to me, but I enjoyed her voice. Fiona reminded me a little of Georgina from the Georgina Kincaid series and the narrated picked up on Fiona’s unraveling. I won't hesitate to listen to another book if she narrators.

Audio provided by publisher, This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer