Gustainis introduces his characters with finely drawn back stories revealed through intriguing scenes. Even evil characters have backgrounds as well as surprises, but there’s no question at all that evil is wrong. “Believers” and “non-believers” struggle to collaborate, communicate and coexist as the plot thickens. And America’s own Salem witches follow the paths laid out in history, while a white south-African policeman offers aid to the FBI.

I really enjoyed the interplay of Gustainis’ characters, the slow revealing of secrets, and the final surprises in this book. Gustainis has created something really intriguing, and I can imagine searching for his future books just as eagerly as I already look for Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. If you like Harry Dresden, or if you’re looking for a grown-up Hermione Grainger, this is the book for you. ( )

There have been a lot of favourable reviews out on this book - Jim Butcher even blurbed the first cover! (I love Jim Butcher's Dresden Files.)

Justin Gustainis has created a really nice world and I'm going to shamelessly copy the blurb from his page and put it here: "Occult investigator Quincey Morris and his "consultant", white witch Libby Chastain, are hired to free a family from a deadly curse that appears to date back to the Salem witch trials. Fraught with danger, the trail finds them stalking the mysterious occult underworlds of Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York, searching out the root of the curse. After surviving a series of terrifying attempts on their lives, the two find themselves drawn inexorably towards Salem itself—the very heart of darkness."

What was interesting about this book was that there's a lot of focus on secondary characters, which gives the reader a really good sense of what's going on in the other parts of the story. I was actually surprised by how evenly divided the novel was in terms of perspective, although Quincey does get a lot of attention as the protagonist. I also really liked how the author pulled together the various storylines at the end.

I've ordered the second book in the series, Evil Ways, and can't wait for it to arrive!

Originally published at http://ireadgood.wordpress.com ( )

The book opens with a ponderous historical bit about the Salem witch trials. It quickly switches to a current-day one-man showdown of a vampire enclave. Then, the author goes to a great deal of trouble to draw on Bram Stoker's Dracula as historic fact and inform readers that his main character is the super-special great-grandson of one of Van Helsing's compatriots.

I felt like the author drew upon Dracula and The Crucible too much, as if doing so would lend credence to his own work-- but it doesn't. It just makes him look like he's writing next-generation Dracula fanfiction, rather than his own legitimately published fantasy. I found the book schlocky and disappointing. ( )

A promising start to what one hopes will prove to be an excellent series. The characters are good, plot is wonderful, and the entire novel is very involving. I couldn't put this down. Pick this book up for a paranormal good time. ( )

Paranormal Investigation novels are ten a penny these days. It's the in-thing to do and probably a result of the Buffy phenomenon that shows no sign of slowing down at the moment.

Unfortunatly this is an unremarkable example. It's not exactly bad, but neither has it the character or excitement of the Dresden Novels.

It's particular niche of the genre is to add a white witch and a vampire hunter tag team together investigating supernatural events (in this case a black witch with an old vendetta). Hopefully the characters will develop further in the sequel, but I couldn't really get into them in this book.

So far i've been mildly entertained. ( )