Evil Ways

The premise: in book two, someone's brutally murdering children for their organs, and this time, it isn't the culprits from Black Magic Woman. There's more than one murderer, making Quincey and his partner Libby to realize that whoever is responsible is planning something BIG. To make things even worse, the person orchestrating the murders might ALSO be responsible for the murders of several white witches, and unfortunately, Libby's on the hit list. It's up to Quincey and Libby to figure out what's going on, who's behind it and why, because any more kids get kill. And before Libby ends up dead.

My Rating

Give It Away: Gustainis is getting better, but he's still not reached the level of addiction necessary for me to truly want to keep show more reading the series, and there's still a lot of room for improvement. Since the final draft of this book was written while he was at Odyssey, I'm giving him one more try in this series, just to see what a post-Odyssey book looks like. Right now, his characters need fleshing out, they need humanizing, but I'm starting to recognize that Gustainis's style of urban fantasy (dark subject matter handled with a very light hand and a touch of humor that can be interpreted by cynics like me as cheese) just isn't what I'm looking for in the genre. One more go, but if Gustainis doesn't improve, I'll stop there until he writes something completely different and totally unrelated to this series. If you weren't a fan of Black Magic Woman, this book probably won't do much for you either; however, I do think you can get away with reading this one without reading the first, as you're told everything you need to know.

The full review, which includes spoilers, rants, and a cover commentary, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Justin Gustainis's EVIL WAYS

Happy Reading! show less

Evil running amok, killing little kids for their organs, a Black Magician who comes across as a spoiled little boy who did not get his way and several people intent on stopping the coming of, well, the END. Though Gustainis writes a fairly good story, his dialogue can be quite clunky and awkward at times and I think he tries too hard to explain stuff that should be obvious to the reader. Still, I enjoyed this book.

This is the name dropping book and I found myself wondering just how close to copyright you can skim before tipping over the edge ...

~The characters go to Chicago chasing leads down and with the intent to speak with Harry "Chicago's resident wizard" Dresden. They also visit Mac's Bar. While in Chicago, Morris tries to get in show more touch with Carl Kolchak but Tony is less than cooperative. LOL

~Hannah Widmark, the woman Morris hires to watch his and Libby Chastain's backs, was trained to shoot Colt .45s by a guy named Cranston ... cue eerie laugh.

~Even the X-Files gets named checked!

I'm not to sure who Frank in the text is, or what the whole fist shake he shares with Hannah is, though it could be just Gustainis' own addition to his universe. I kind of wonder if he wasn't trying for a reference to Supernatural.

I'm beginning to think there ought to to be a convention of wizards, magic workers, monster hunters etc. including Harry, Alex Verus, Quincy Morris & Libby Chastain, Peter Grant, the Winchesters ... show less

I have calmed down considerably since I first reviewed this book. I wanted to make sure I was being fair and wasn't too harsh in my assesments. So I decided to give Evil Ways another look. It's still horrible. (CAUTION: Spoilers.)

In the first book of this series, "Black Magic Woman", author Justin Gustainis created an interesting world. Hero Quincy Morris had a background, likes and dislikes and even a personality. In this book he's reduced to calling people "podner" a lot. Libby Chastain seems to be there only because the publisher insisted on it. Gustainis made her bi-sexual in the first book and he can't help but remind us of that fact at every turn. It's the only thing he seems to know about her until he needs a plot twist.

An show more action scene at a hotel has Morris & Chastain attacked by bats. Only then do we learn of Libby's intense fear of them. He spends a page and a half detailing why she keeps her bathroom door locked when she showers and he can't spare a sentence or two to mention her bat phobia?

In an effort to be edgy he decides to have his FBI agent characters swear. More specificly, he drops F-bombs liberally throughout their dialogue. He doesn't bother to flesh them out either. Not until they are faced with trying to get critical information out of a prisoner and the only way these two "professionals" can think to accomplish this is to have the female partner prostitue herself. But it's OK though, she was doing it to make sure children across the county will be safe. The fact that she was a victim of childhood sexual abuse only helps her because she know show to lay there until a man is done with her.

I gave up after that. The plot, the dialogue, the characterization were all so painfully amateurish I just could not go on. I know this thing was edited because he thanks an editor in the acknowledgments. He also mentions that the editor tried to get him to change some things and was gracious when he declined. I think the poor guy gave up and let him turn in what he had because there was no way to fix all the problems.

I suspect that the "one-a-year" grind that publishers have authors on is what led to the problems here. If he had had more time maybe he could have written something that built on what he had created instead of tearing it all down.

Read "Black Magic Woman" and be done with it. This book isn't worth anyone's time or money. show less

This second case for Morris and Chastain ramps up the intensity of the first case. Someone, in fact a group of someones, are killing children and harvesting their organs. Morris is blackmailed by FBI Agent Dale Fenton and his new white witch partner Colleen O'Donnell to investigate the case. Meanwhile, someone is targeting and killing white witches and have made a few unsuccessful attempts to kill Libby Chastain.

Quincey has Libby join him to help with his investigation and to protect her too. To provide additional protection, he enlists Hannah Widmark who is another very dangerous character. Both the FBI investigation and Quincy and Libby's investigation start pointing the same direction. A black magician named Lewis Pardee is planning show more something big. Like, lay waste to the Earth big.

Pardee is funded by zillionaire Walter Grobius who is hoping for healing from his terminal illness and extended life. Pardee has other goals. The action is tense in this one. I love the relationship between Quincey and Libby. They are friends and partners but have no romantic interest in each other. Both respect the other's competence and together they are a very formidable team.

This was another great urban fantasy that was filled with action and adventure. show less

This one started off a bit slow but gained momentum as it continued, I loved the shadow of a cameo by Harry Dresden (he doesn't appear because he has other things he has to do but Morris and Chastain visit his stomping grounds). Someone is killing white witches and children and Morris and Chastain have to try to stop them before they do something earth-shattering.

I liked it, it wasn't remarkable but it was diverting.

Gustainis is carving out a niche in a genre dominated by women (don't get me wrong, I LOVE that women dominate!). Evil Ways is an exciting read. His characters, both male and female are fully developed. I highly recommend this series and I'm anxiously awaiting the third!
This book did have some editing problems that are supposed to be corrected for the paperback release.

Finally an Urban Fantasy book that is not First Person. I like reading first person books like Dresden and Sookie but its nice to change it up a bit. And Urban Fantasy doesn't seem to lend itself as a genre to third person. But we have it here thanks to Justin Gustainis.

This is the second book dealing with Morris and Libby Chastain. He is a super-nat Quincey ural private investigator and she is a White Witch. This time around the FBI wants Quincey to investigate a bunch of children being murdered around the country, sometimes happening on the same day. Generally Quincey would call Libby up to get her super-natural perspective on things but she is being target by assassins. So she asks him for protection.

The two FBI agents are show more researching it from their perspective as well. And everything leads to Pardee and his employer Walter Grobius. What are they up to and what does a book taken from a museum in Iraq have to do with everything?

This is a great fun book. More is added on from the first and there may be an over all arc that Gustainis is working with here. The first book is not really necessary to read before this one though it helps to become familiar with the main characters.

Also if you are a Dresden fan a certain pub owner in Chicago makes an appearance in this book to give Quincey and Libby some advice. That totally ROCKS!!!! show less