Curse on the Land

Curse on the Land (2016) Faith Hunter

This is the second Soulwood book, set in the same reality as the Jane Yellowrock series, but not featuring Jane (although she does make appearances).

Nell Ingram is tied to the land. She’s not a witch (she doesn’t test as one anyway) but she can do things that make her valuable, which is why Rock LeFleur encouraged her to join PsyLED, the paranormal law enforcement agency, in one of the few units that is composed mostly or paranormals.

She has just finished her training and is returning home as a probie, but with a new source of income and many other changes to her formerly off-the-grid life.

She still needs to deal with the darkness on her lands that was Brother Ephram, but a magical emergency puts her immediately to work: something is wrong with the land, and PsyLED thinks Nell’s skills are just the thing to help them figure out what is happening.

I do like Unit 18 not just for how they treat Nell, but also for themselves.

I let them help me because I didn’t want to throw up on the stairs. But about halfway up I retched again.

T. Laine said, “You barf on my shoes and I swear I’ll make you pay.”

“You can barf on my shoes, Nell, sugar.”

“No one could tell,” T. Laine said.

“True,” Occam said.

And I remain delighted that Nell has reconnected with her family, that they weren’t all bad as things appeared when we first met her.

“Nellie, you’un got big brass ones, that’s all I got to say.”

I had learned what the saying meant at Spook School, and thought it was silly, as testicles were small, easy to remove, and easily injured. I had seen enough farm animals castrated to know that for a fact.

I also really enjoy seeing things from the law enforcement side, as the members of Unit 18 bemoan paperwork, but also as we consider the legal ramifications of paranormal creatures.

“There is no law or system of laws currently established based on judicial precedent to deal with this sort of situation. Nor are there statutory laws created by legislation to deal with this situation. We are off the legal grid. This is why PsyLED was created: this is our mandate, to deal with problems like this. To stop them. And if people or beings or creatures are responsible, to find them and make sure they are stopped.” He closed his laptop, picked up his cell, and stood. “Go. Do things. Be smart. Tread carefully. Let’s get this solved fast.”

I quite like this series as well as the Jane Yellowrock series.
Rating: 8/10

Published by ROC

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