UNHOLY GHOSTS (Downside Ghosts, Book 1)
by Stacia Kane
Del Rey (May 25, 2010)
- Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 468 KB
- Publisher: Del Rey; Original edition (May 25, 2010)
- Kindle Edition Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
Available in Mass Market Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook
Edition Read, Mass Market Paperback. Won in Blog Giveaway
Ick Factor: Sexually, none, some for descriptions of drug use
Cliche Component: None, zero, zip
Pace: varied, good set-up.
Ick Factor: Sexually, none, some for descriptions of drug use
Cliche Component: None, zero, zip
Pace: varied, good set-up.
THE AFTERLIFE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
“And the living prayed to their gods and begged for rescue from the armies of the dead, and there was no answer. For there are no gods.”— from The Book of Truth, Origins, Article 12
The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen and constantly attack the living. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Consequently, there are many false claims of hauntings from those hoping to profit. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully-tattooed witch and freewheeling Debunker and ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for nailing the human liars or banishing the wicked dead. But she’s keeping a dark secret from the Church: a little drug problem that’s landed her in hot and dangerous water.(link page has an excerpt)
Chess owes a murderous drug lord named Bump a lot of money. And Bump wants immediate payback. All Chess has to do is dispatch a very nasty species of undead from an old airport. But the job involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and crossing swords with enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust with a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.
 |
| UK May 2010 |
 |
| Germany (Feb. 2011) |
Foreign Covers
My Take
This book is quite simply among the best Urban Fantasy I have read. And, that is saying an awful lot. The writing is superb and intelligent. The plot and characters complex, twisted, and surprising. The heroine is Chess (Cesaria) Putnam, a "Church Witch," who was abandoned by her parents before the spiritual apocalypse which seems to have decimated humannity, throwing it almost into a reverse steampunk era - with the technology of today but a faux-puritanical, but god(s)less morality. In this somewhat awful new world the Church of Truth rules with magic, and both succors the dead and imprisons spectral criminals.
Chess is a debunker: a church employee who uncovers fraud in haunting claims.
Her past as a foster child where she was victimized by all manner of evil has left her broken, and without therapy to fix her psyche, she has fallen into drug abuse, shocking addiction. It left me conflicted about her at times, but, mostly it leaves her vulnerable and in the end intensely sympathetic. Some of the other "bad girl" heroines, for example Sabina Kane, of Red-Headed Step-Child by Jaye Wells, look like Girl Scouts in comparison.
Her drug-habit leaves her in debt and blackmailed by one drug-lord and then another. Eventually the story which is metaphorically a candle burning at both ends of her life comes to a conclusion in the middle, via some tricky plot navigation.
Chess's life is heartbreaking, with her most trusted ally being a hitman with a soft spot (and probably a hard one too) for Chess. Ultimately, I wanted her to succeed, wanted her life to become better even as I watched her dig her hole more and more deeply. Sadly, she has an ambivalent relationship with the Church of Truth and recognizes its flaws in a way from which we could all take a lesson. At the same time, having rescued her from foster care, educated her and employed her she has a strong devotion to it.
The only issue I have is the jargon used by the "have-nots" of this world. It lands somewhere between Old English and today's street slang. I occasionally found it hard to get, but it did not distract me from what was happening.
If you like Urban Fantasy this is a must read. If you think of UF as "Dark-Chick-Lit" this will probably change your mind. I think it would even appeal across genders. Indeed, having begun the series, I am afraid you are in for a few days of it, until I am through ingesting whatever is available.
My Highest and Most Enthusiastic Recommendation.
