Black Magic Woman (Morris and Chastain Investigations) Review

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Black Magic Woman (Morris and Chastain Investigations) Review_Black Magic Woman_ by Justin Gustainis is one of the best contemporary fantasy novels I have read in a long time. It has great pacing, characters and plot.
The book starts out fast, with the prologue taking place at the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials in 1692. From there we move to the present day, where our two main characters -- Quincey Morris and Elizabeth "Libby" Chastain -- are each running their own private supernatural consultant businesses. Quincey specializes in dealing with supernatural problems like demons, vampires, or angry ghosts. Libby is a white witch who focuses on magical issues and misuse or misrepresentation of mystical powers such as black magic, fake mediums and fraudulent preachers. They are good friends who have worked on cases together before, and this time it is Quincey who needs Libby's help defeating the curse placed on a family.
There were A LOT of things I liked about _Black Magic Woman_:
- Quincey and Libby are great characters. Both are interesting, have their own personalities and backstories, and their interactions are pleasant to read as well.
- Even though there are a lot of secondary characters and a lot of subplots, it doesn't get confusing or boring, and everything is tied together at the end.
- A lot of passing references to classic horror movies and novels. It's fun to see how Gustainis weaves these into the story.
- References to current-day events, such as politics at the FBI, or some of the more intractable problems in post-Apartheid South Africa.
- Gustainis did a lot of research on his subjects. In particular, lynch mobs attacking suspected sorcerers in Africa and "necklacing" them is something that really happens, and it was obvious Gustainis did a lot of background study before writing this book. At the same time, Gustainis has a light hand with his material and his writing never becomes boring or pretentious.
- In particular, _Black Magic Woman_ stands out from a lot of recent dark urban fantasy in its treatment of gore and Christianity. Some authors in this genre have a tendency to spend A LOT of text on torture and pain, and treat Christianity as being either judgmental and overly rigid or hollow and materialistic. While _Black Magic Woman_ is definitely a crime thriller and a lot of ugly things happen during the book, Gustainis does NOT make the reader wade through pages and pages of blood and horror and bad guys lovingly describing their sadism. Also, the treatment of Christians, Christianity and Christian mysticism was very even-handed.
- There are a lot of great story lines and great secondary characters which would all make interesting books in themselves. Do Quincey and Libby ever run into Barry Love in New York again? Does Fenton ever get sucked into more odd cases? Do we ever get to see Van Dreenan again?
Regarding things I didn't like about _Black Magic Woman_ -- there wasn't much. I think one escape where our protagonists FLEW was a bit far-fetched, but that's the only major complaint I have.
I am looking forward to the next book, and definitely consider this one to be a five-star read.Black Magic Woman (Morris and Chastain Investigations) Overview

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Hard Spell (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) Review

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Hard Spell (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) ReviewIn Hard Spell, the first book of the Occult Crimes Unit Investigation series, Stan, his partner, their boss, and their other associates work to ensure that normal and supernatural people (aka `supes') get along by whatever means necessary. After dealing with some difficult cases, Stan Markowski finds himself investigating a series of gruesome vampire murders that might be part of a sacrificial ritual while also dealing with wizards, a cursed book, witchfinders, even more vampires, and a cultist out for revenge.
Despite the backwards way that information was occasionally passed on,* Gustainis' writing was very solid and very engaging throughout. There were also a few typos, but that was nothing compared to a terrific amount of details, an excellent pace, the flow of events, and Stan Markowski and Karl Renfer's partnership. Stan was very much a loner and very much -and somewhat desperately- married to his work. I loved his first person point of view. His sarcastic, more-than-slightly jaded take on things made sense given his job and really just the dangers lurking around every corner of Scranton. However, I was very thankful for Karl being there. He was able to provide a really great sidekick element to the book and also prevented Stan from retreating too deeply in on himself.
Over all, the world-building was excellent and wonderfully well-executed. Gustainis paints a very dark, gritty, edgy picture of a town swarming with supernatural and paranormal activity. While there are plenty of gray areas throughout the novel in regards to supes and several aspects of Stan's primary case, I liked that the vampires, werewolves, ghouls, witches, and cultists were a lot more complicated than simply being good or evil. The way things were fleshed out in terms of the Occult Crimes Investigation Unit was very convincing and well-developed too. In addition, there is no romance here, plenty of swearing, and no real happy endings to be had, which I appreciated. Really, I was incredibly impressed by the level of believability this book had despite how very unbelievable everything was. I also enjoyed the humor of the book, particularly the darker aspects of it, as well as all of the pop-culture references. Particularly Karl's love of all things Bond and Stan mentioning both Night Gallery and the Necronomicon.
All of that said, I did sort of wish that the female characters in Hard Spell hadn't been so obviously assigned specific roles and relegated primarily to the background. There were women in a lot of scenes and a few of them were important minor characters like Rachel Proctor and Christine, but really they didn't get to kick butt and take names so much as be rescued from overwhelming trouble and/or danger. I also find it a bit weird that the only female member of a SWAT team featured later on in the book has to be bailed out by male teammates and that even the female Hellhound thrown into the mix was described as not being as intimidating as the male of the species.
Not wanting to focus too often or too hard on female characters is fine, of course. I have enjoyed plenty of books that has taken that approach such as the first two books of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles, which does include female characters but is mostly about a druid named Attitcus, his dog, and his supernatural lawyers. But there's also no reason to have a lot of female characters around only to have them read as very or at least slightly inferior to their male counterparts. Granted, this element of the book didn't ruin the story for me or make me care any less for Stan or Karl, but it was -and still is- a bit troubling.
In conclusion, very, very good and pretty much exactly what I'd been hoping for. If you've been finding Urban Fantasy far too light on substance, far too heavy on romance, or far too light in general, I'd highly suggest checking out Hard Spell. I am also incredibly glad that this is the first book in the series because I definitely want more. I do hope that Evil Dark utilizes female characters in a better way, but for the most part I simply can't wait to see what happens in book two.
* Occasionally, I had to wait until the end of the chapter or section for Gustainis to reveal something Stan had known for a long, long time or that the person Stan had been talking to was a friend, relative, or colleague.Hard Spell (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) Overview

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