{"id":4578,"date":"2014-04-24T21:11:30","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T02:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4578"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:10:14","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:10:14","slug":"black-magic-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4578","title":{"rendered":"Black Magic Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black Magic Woman<\/a><\/em> (2008) Justin Gustainis<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Black<\/a>This isn’t the first book by Justin Gustainis I’ve read, so I had a general idea of what to expect. This book is a bit different from the other series I’ve read, however. A little less horror, and although there was a bit of police procedural to it, the main character is a private investigator, Quincy Morris, and Libby Chastain, the white witch who occasionally helps him out.<\/p>\n

There are many different threads in this plot, and from a scan of the reviews, this bothered a lot of people. <\/p>\n

Me? I liked it.<\/p>\n

The prologue is set during the Salem witch trials. Then we jump to modern time, and Quincy Morris is helping to take out a nest of vampires. This is essentially a short story to introduce us to Quincy Morris.<\/p>\n

I liked it, but I can see why some people might not.<\/p>\n

Then we jump to the mystery. Which breaks into two story arcs: the Morris and Chastain story arc, and the Van Dreenan and Agent Fenton arc. <\/p>\n

I quite liked Van Dreenan and Fenton. I thought they got the better dialog.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou did not, surely, use the word \u2018hinky\u2019 in your requests,\u201d Van Dreenan said with a tiny smile, his first in days.
\n\u201cNo, I believe I used words like \u2018unusual,\u2019\u2018anomalous,\u2019\u2018idiosyncratic,\u2019 and \u2018fucked-up.\u2019 Well, maybe not that last one.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not that I had anything against Morris & Chastain. I just found the two cops a little more interesting. Perhaps because they were non-magical men trying to deal with a magical crime. Though I was a little irritated by the ending. I can’t say magical healing is one of my favorite things–it often feels cheap.<\/p>\n

Fun terms:
\numthakhati
\nWalpurgis Night<\/p>\n

Lots of really awful things happen. Not in detail, but still disturbing. so this isn’t for everyone. But I liked it well enough.
\nRating:7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Solaris Books <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black Magic Woman (2008) Justin Gustainis This isn’t the first book by Justin Gustainis I’ve read, so I had a general idea of what to expect. This book is a bit different from the other series I’ve read, however. A little less horror, and although there was a bit of police procedural to it, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,8,16],"tags":[132,313,217],"class_list":["post-4578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-mystery","category-supernatural","tag-justin-gustainis","tag-vampires","tag-witches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1bQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3957,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3957","url_meta":{"origin":4578,"position":0},"title":"Evil Dark","author":"Michelle","date":"January 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Evil Dark (2012) Justin Gustainis Stan Markowski is still on the supe squad in Scranton, still looking into crime committed by and\/or against supernatural creatures, and this time a series of murders looks to be tied together, but the answer to cui bono is nowhere to be found. Like the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bad Cover"","block_context":{"text":"Bad Cover","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/bad"},"img":{"alt_text":"EvilDark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/EvilDark-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22213,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22213","url_meta":{"origin":4578,"position":1},"title":"Evil Dark","author":"Michelle","date":"September 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Evil Dark (2012) Justin Gustainis (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) There's just something about an over-the-top supernatural police procedural. Pretend that there's a file folder somewhere, a big, thick one, labeled Real Bad Ideas. There's at least three things I can think of that belong in there \u2013 inviting a werewolf\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Evil Dark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/EvilDark-e1511017362369.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22172,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22172","url_meta":{"origin":4578,"position":2},"title":"Hard Spell","author":"Michelle","date":"August 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Hard Spell (2011) Justin Gustainis (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) This is the city \u2013 Scranton, Pennsylvania. My name's Markowski. I carry a badge. \u00a0\u00a0Also a crucifix, some wooden stakes, a big vial of holy water, and a 9 mm Beretta loaded with silver bullets. I put a vial containing fresh\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5418,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5418","url_meta":{"origin":4578,"position":3},"title":"Sympathy for the Devil","author":"Michelle","date":"September 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Sympathy for the Devil (2011) Justin Gustainis I came to this series because I very much enjoy his Occult Crimes Unit Investigations (despite the horrific covers), so I've been slowly working my way through his Quincy Morris series. Slowly, because I just don't enjoy it anywhere near as much as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"sympathy-for-the-devil","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/sympathy-for-the-devil.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22223,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22223","url_meta":{"origin":4578,"position":4},"title":"Known Devil","author":"Michelle","date":"September 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Known Devil (2014) Justin Gustainis (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) Karl hadn\u2019t complained about taking the damaged elf to the hospital. He wouldn\u2019t be allowed to take part in any interrogation, anyway. The Supreme Court had ruled in Barlow v. Maine almost forty years ago that anything a suspect said in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Known Devil","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/KnownDevil-e1511019059932.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12373,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12373","url_meta":{"origin":4578,"position":5},"title":"Evil Dark","author":"Michelle","date":"January 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Evil Dark (2012) Justin Gustainis I am enjoying my re-read of this series. Pretend that there's a file folder somewhere, a big, thick one, labeled Real Bad Ideas. There's at least three things I can think of that belong in there \u2013 inviting a werewolf for a moonlight stroll, telling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Evil Dark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/EvilDark-e1511017362369.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}