Hard Spell: A Review

So a couple months back Justin Gustainis emailed me and asked if I'd be willing to do a review... I gotta be honest; I'm a bit hesitant on reading books by people I don't know on request—the blogosphere is another matter (I love you guys, so it is a straight time equation), but I didn't know Justin... When I read his pitch, though... I just couldn't resist.

Now this isn't a genre I'd ever read, but it reminded me A LOT of some of the television I watch... It is hard boiled detective meets paranormal camp... it is Men in Black only Vampires, Werewolves and Wizards instead of aliens.

Summary

Stan Markowski works for Scranton Pennsylvania's Occult Crime Unit... the department includes a witch, a priest, a rabbi, a handler for a hellhound...

Early in the book there is a gruesome crime scene... a long torture of a wizard... something stolen... and then the Vampire murders start...

Now Vampires in this world aren't ALL horrible...okay, there is remaining bias, but... it isn't illegal to be a Vampire... it is only illegal to kill people, so among consenting adults... and there ARE some...

It turns out the stolen item and the Vampire murders are related... and heading for something TERRIBLE... and our detective is in charge of solving it before that happens...



Assessment

This was a fabulous combination. I normally get a little annoyed with say... a Raymond Chandler hard boiled... partially because the man is misogynistic, but it is just... too dry... This book maintained the MYSTERY side, but added humor, surprise... and besides that, Markowski has a higher view of women. I mean it's not that he doesn't NOTICE certain... erm... attributes... but he thinks a lot of their intelligence and abilities and he values them (as does Justin, based on how he writes his female characters).

One of the sublime clevernesses was the magic—the book had clever twists on what you think of as traditional spells or protections, but with a twist that makes them seem realistic and modern.

I think if you like detective novels you'll like it. If you like paranormal you'll like it. If you like campy speculative fiction you'll like it... and if there is one of those you normally DON'T like, there is enough of the other that it cancels that. It really is a great mix.