review to come

LA is looking rough dealing with all the deaths from the fires from the previous book. When there are a lot of ghosts in one place the barrier is thin, and someone has decided to take advantage of that and use ghosts as weapons. This brings someone from Eric’s past to town that we haven’t seen before, and we learn a little bit about what he has done. There is also someone trailing him trying to get to the stuff he inherited from his family that he never knew about until he came back to town. The book ends on a good cliffhanger and I can’t wait to see what happens next. ( )

Ghost Money
(Eric Carter #5)
by Stephen Blackmoore
I think this is my favorite book so far up until the very end...then a cliffhanger! Urg! NO! I don't do cliffhangers well! I don't have anymore of his books and out of money and the library doesn't carry them! So, I guess I will be watching for sales on Chirp again!
This series has the best characters, action, fantasy, although slightly dark, but tempered with wit and humor. I love it! No explicit sexy scenes is also a big bonus!
Eric, our necromancer hero, is somehow always in trouble while trying to do what is right. Now, he is turning into a jade statue. He is in a life struggle with a god or two! 😊 ( )

Not a review, but a spoiler....





Mr. Blackmoore.... Please don't end the series here. I need more! ( )

So what else can happen to Eric Carter after everything from the previous books - he got married to Santa Muerte (twice), almost got turned into jade, saved Mictlan(or started to anyway), got beaten more often than you would expect possible, lost the last of his family, saved a lot of souls, killed some others, burned down most of Los Angeles. Admittedly he was not the one who burned the city technically but if you ask him, he is the one to blame. Did I mention that he is also a necromancer and he can see ghosts?

This novel opens a short while after the previous one closed, in the aftermath of the near destruction of the city. Somehow the world managed to accept that it was a natural phenomenon and noone thinks it has anything to do with magic. But as it actually did, and some very powerful magic, things are going from bad to worse before your eyes.

Ghosts are usually annoying but as long as you are staying on this side of the barrier, they are mostly harmless. Until someone weaponize them of course and the resident necromancer needs to figure what is going on and stop it. Add a broken promise that really needs to be fulfilled, a jinn who really wants his bottle and the regular cast of helpers who really do not like him either (not very surprising considering what they all went through last time) and Eric is way over his head. Again.

One of the things that always gets me in this series is the fact that despite it being one of the most violent urban fantasy series out there, most of the regular characters are female -- the tough cop, La Bruja (now not hiding who she really is), the doctor (who is also his ex), even Santa Muerte. And here we add one more to the group - Indigo, one of the twins who lost their mother to the feral ghosts. And while they all collectively can handle (and administer) all the violence you can think of, it is also different because each of them also cares in her own way.

By the end of the novel, Eric had managed to put himself into a corner that may be too tight even for him. On the other hand though, he is also Mictlantecuhtli these days so it is unclear if the next book will be set in Mictlan or if Blackmoore will find a way to keep it in our world. Knowing Eric, it is far from over. ( )