City of Ghosts

City of Ghosts by Stacia Kane

Downside Ghosts #3

IT’S A THIN LINE BETWEEN ALIVE AND UNDEAD.

Chess Putnam has a lot on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chess’s bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.

Chess is under a binding spell that threatens death if she talks about the investigation, but the city’s most notorious crime boss—and Chess’s drug dealer—gets wind of her new assignment and insists on being kept informed. If that isn’t bad enough, a sinister street vendor appears to have information Chess needs. Only he’s not telling what he knows, or what it all has to do with the vast underground City of Eternity.

Now Chess will have to navigate killer wraiths, First Elders, and a lot of seriously nasty magic—all while coping with some not-so-small issues of her own. And the only man Chess can trust to help her through it all has every reason to want her dead.

After the incidents from the last book Chess cannot stand to be alone in her head, so when Elder Griffin offers a special assignment she chomps at the bit. There's one small problem, as Chess must agree to be bound, and the penalty for speaking of her investigations is death. She also has to accept a condescending partner named Lauren, who is the Grand Elder's daughter. Sparks fly between them instantly and Chess is reminded why she always works alone. Lauren undermines Chess's intelligence and capabilities every chance she gets. Yet amazingly when trouble strikes, Chess still feels loyalty towards Lauren and saves her from death. Proving at the root Chess truly is a good person, she just has an addiction problem.

When Chess is caught in Bump's territory doing magic he tries to force her to spill her beans. When she attempts to, her binding marks start to kill her. Luckily Bump gets the point and decides to send Terrible to shadow her since she may not be able to speak about the case, but he can. Despite her fear of getting caught by the church, she agrees, with the hope at a chance to tell Terrible the truth about what happened between her and Lex. Of course, Terrible being "terrible" could not make that easy and the tension between them is thicker than water.


The saying always goes, "You don't know what you got 'till its gone." This could not be more true for Chess. Terrible now treats her like she has the bubonic plague, trying to avoid her at all costs. Regardless of his outer angry attitude, underneath it is clear he is hurting. It is clear just how much he cares for her which makes her betrayal all the worse. Chess finds herself trying to do anything she can to win him back. She knows she messed up and has no problem fessing up to it, but that just doesn't seem to be enough. The emotional angst between them is heart wrenching. The two find nothing is irreparable, but the road will be long and very bumpy. Their rocky relationship kept me on the edge of my seat the entire book.

The first two books may have been very good, but this book stepped it up to a whole new level and completely blew me away. Chess made a lot of character growth in this book, and while she still is very much a drug addict, she starts to have more depth as she allows herself to have feelings for others. The ending gave Chess some resolution and happiness, something I didn't expect for her. While I still cannot wait for the next book to released, hopefully next year, the way this one ended left me with a sense of contentment. If you loved the first two books, you'll love this one even more.

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City of Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 3)

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Unholy Magic

Unholy Magic by Stacia Kane

Downside Ghosts #2

ENEMIES DON’T NEED TO BE ALIVE TO BE DEADLY.

For Chess Putnam, finding herself near-fatally poisoned by a con psychic and then stopping a murderous ghost is just another day on the job. As an agent of the Church of Real Truth, Chess must expose those looking to profit from the world’s unpleasant little poltergeist problem—humans filing false claims of hauntings—all while staving off any undead who really are looking for a kill. But Chess has been extra busy these days, coping with a new “celebrity” assignment while trying on her own time to help some desperate prostitutes.

Someone’s taking out the hookers of Downside in the most gruesome way, and Chess is sure the rumors that it’s the work of a ghost are way off base. But proving herself right means walking in the path of a maniac, not to mention standing between the two men in her life just as they—along with their ruthless employers—are moving closer to a catastrophic showdown. Someone is dealing in murder, sex, and the supernatural, and once again Chess finds herself right in the crossfire.

A few months after the events of the first book, Terrible takes her to the site where a hooker was brutally murdered to look for a possible ghost culprit. Through her investigations she soon finds out that it isn't just Bump's people getting killed, but Sloebag, the rival drug lord's, as well. As a result Chess finds herself stuck between the two men in her life, Terrible and the occasional lover, Lex. Chess starts to really realize how stupid it was to get mixed up with both sides when she agrees to help both of them. She knows what it could cost her, but she doesn't have much choice as her addiction has her stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Terrible's character continued to grow on me in this book. He shows a much softer, vulnerable side that just caught Chess completely off guard. She starts to realize she has real feelings for him and that scares her to death. She doesn't want to lose him but she doesn't know how to let herself need him as her past has taught her to only count on herself. Her betrayal with Lex starts to really weigh on her and for the first time Chess starts to really realize the potential consequences of her actions.

Her drug addiction hits really hard in this book. It seems now that she is getting free drugs from Lex she is only using that much more since she wants to keep up the facade with Bump so he doesn't get suspicious. She starts down a slippery slope that will only bring her world crashing down around her. It never ceases to amaze me just how much drugs she does as well as her constantly popping pills in the middle of fights. I just do not know how she has survived this long. At this point, because of her addiction she has virtually lost all freedom and can be easily manipulated for fear of exposure. Her ideals of maintaining her addiction in comfort are pulled right out from under her and at times she truly doesn't know if she wants to continue on. Unfortunately, I imagine that would be what you would have to expect as a junkie, but it doesn't make me have any less sympathy for her.

The book ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger that left me desperate to see how Chess will try to dig herself out of the bottomless pit she has made. This gritty, dark, urban fantasy is a great read and will make you care for characters you never thought you could. If you enjoy the darker side of urban fantasy, this is a must read.

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Unholy Magic (Downside Ghosts, Book 2)

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Unholy Ghosts

Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane

Downside Ghosts #1

THE AFTERLIFE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen and constantly attack the living. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Consequently, there are many false claims of hauntings from those hoping to profit. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully-tattooed witch and freewheeling Debunker and ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for nailing the human liars or banishing the wicked dead. But she’s keeping a dark secret from the Church: a little drug problem that’s landed her in hot and dangerous water.

Chess owes a murderous drug lord named Bump a lot of money. And Bump wants immediate payback. All Chess has to do is dispatch a very nasty species of undead from an old airport. But the job involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and crossing swords with enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust with a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

  

Chess is a church witch whose job as a debunker is to disband rouge ghosts and disprove false haunting claims against the church. She is a broken character with many flaws and weaknesses. In the middle of a fight she will pop pills or snort up. She is completely unable to function without being high. Surprisingly though, I couldn't help caring for Chess. Her past is a little murky, but based on what was revealed its no wonder she is a user. Despite her weaknesses, she has a tremendous underlying strength. A lesser person could not have survived some of the thing she went through.

Chess's habit lands her in hot water in this book when her drug lord, Bump, orders her to clear up a ghost problem at an airfield he wants to open. She thought it would be an easy way to wipe her debt clean but quickly finds herself in the middle of a deadly plot with a great evil at the root. As if these evil forces were not enough, Chess is pitted between the two main drug lords when Bump's rival, Lex, tells her he doesn't want that airport open and it would be in her best interest to stop it. Teamed up with Bump's enforcer, Terrible, she must figure out how to play both sides, and unravel the nefarious plot or it could mean countless deaths including her own..

Terrible's character completely caught me off guard. Chess describes him as an ugly brute who is only good for beating down people for his boss, so I wasn't expecting anything else behind that facade. However, he seems to have a slight vulnerability towards Chess and given his normal behavior, this makes him very endearing. As the book went on, Chess began to see intelligence behind that brawn, as well as compassion and found herself trusting him, something she never does. There was a definite spark between the two of them that was much more than the lust between Chess and Lex. Hopefully this trust will build into something more between them.

I didn't particularly care for the extreme slang from some of the characters. It was difficult to read at first, but as the book went on it did get a little easier to understand. I understand the author was trying to show the characters from downside as uneducated, but the slang could have been written a little more clearly. Putting that aside, the rest of the book flowed really well and kept me sucked in until the very end. Considering how dark the book is as well as Chess's habits, it is a surprisingly good read, and makes a good addition to the Urban Fantasy Genre.

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Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 1) 

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