Unholy Magic – Stacia Kane

June 22, 2010 in Reviews

  • Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
  • Stacia Kane’s Website
  • List Price: $7.99 US/$9.99 CDN
  • Publisher: Del Rey (July 6, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345515587
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345515582

Pre-Order Unholy Magic at:

For Chess Putnam, finding herself near-fatally poisoned by a con psychic and then stopping a murderous ghost is just another day on the job. As an agent of the Church of Real Truth, Chess must expose those looking to profit from the world’s unpleasant little poltergeist problem—humans filing false claims of hauntings—all while staving off any undead who really are looking for a kill. But Chess has been extra busy these days, coping with a new “celebrity” assignment while trying on her own time to help some desperate prostitutes.

Someone’s taking out the hookers of Downside in the most gruesome way, and Chess is sure the rumors that it’s the work of a ghost are way off base. But proving herself right means walking in the path of a maniac, not to mention standing between the two men in her life just as they—along with their ruthless employers—are moving closer to a catastrophic showdown. Someone is dealing in murder, sex, and the supernatural, and once again Chess finds herself right in the crossfire.

First, if you haven’t read the first Downside Ghosts book: Unholy Ghosts please stop by my review of it here & make sure to buy yourself a copy.

Unholy Magic is book two in the Downside Ghosts series & without a doubt my favorite new series of 2010. I have never in my life felt the need to email an author & wax poetic about how much I enjoyed their book until I read Unholy Magic!

I am a huge fan of Unholy Ghosts but I feel with Unholy Magicyou get to know Chess better, you already know what she’s about in the most basic of senses. We know Chess is a debunker as well as a drug addict, but we don’t really know why she is either. In Unholy Magicyou get a little idea as to why Chess is the way she is, why she is addicted to drugs & her life before she became a debunker. It’s not pretty, but it makes Chess, Chess. It was just more in depth in my opinion, you already know some of the back story from the previous book but now you’re learning what makes everyone tick. You understand the downspeak & are comfortable with the world that Kane has written.

The story is fabulous, Chess is working at a Celebrities house because he claims to have seen ghosts & his wife was attacked by one of them. On top of that, there are hookers being murdered in a gruesome fashion & no one has any idea why. We also get more into Chess relationship with Terrible & Lex, trust me I wanted to strangle Chess at one point. There is also a HUGE epic moment towards the end of the book that had be going “WTF, OMG”, so book three in the series is going to be all sorts of drama I am sure. I will even admit that I cried. Uh-huh.

I tried real hard to read Unholy Magic slowly, because the wait for City of Ghosts may be too much for me. I think I’m already going into withdrawals. Stacia Kane does not disappoint & crafts one of the most original new series of 2010.

Read an excerpt of Unholy Magic here.