Speculation, Fact and Fiction

Highly recommended, all the more so now the growing number of post-Buffy books is leading inevitably to some misfires.

Black Magic Woman's right on target; a pacy thriller with a solidly dramatic premise. A supernatural investigator is called in to help free an innocent family from a vindictive's witch's attacks. Aforesaid supernatural investigator calls in reinforcements, in the shape of his white witch ally and the hunt is on.

So far, so fun, for values of fun that include plenty of action, some wry humour, a fair amount of creepiness, some full-on gore and a couple of absolutely heart-stopping shocks. The writing is fluent and assured, the plot nicely constructed to crank up the reader's expectations when they get one step ahead of the characters, and elsewhere to leave them comprehensively wrong-footed, all the better to spring a suprise twist.

If that's all there was, I could happily recommend this as one of those enjoyable, but ultimately transient dark/supernatural fantasy yarns we're currently seeing hit the shelves. What makes this particular book more is the way Gustainis ties his characters and their mythos into the historical reality and fictional history of the supernatural. Slipped deftly into the tale, all this gives the book welcome substance without ever weighing it down with pretensions.

Quincey Morris, the investigator, is the great-grandson of one of the players in the original Dracula story. The witches' quarrel goes back to Salem. Consequently, Morris and his ally, Libby Chastain, are well able to distinguish between the truly supernatural and contemporary occult chicanery devised to fleece the gullible. Though they naturally have their contacts among the charlatans, which incidentally helps ground the story firmly in our world.

What all this background emphatically does not do is gloss over the impact of evil and malice by making these events merely part of some far-off tale that started long ago. Quincey's enemy is a thoroughly modern witch whose methods include some of the nastiest things you'll read about in contemporary crime reporting. Crucially Gustainis never makes the mistake of trivialising savagery or suffering, thus imbuing the fight of good versus evil with very real danger as well as true merit.

A damn good read and a promising start to what should become a rewarding series.