Stacia Kane – Unholy Magic

Unholy Magic is book two in the Downside Ghosts series. It picks up shortly after the events of Unholy Ghosts. Chess is assigned a new task from the church looking into a reported haunting in a celebrity’s house. At the same time local drug dealer and pimp Bump wants her to investigate the deaths of several prostitutes from the area who seem to have been killed by a ghost.

I think I enjoyed this book more than the first one. In this book we get to know a little more about the characters which I found interesting. Chess is managing to mess her life up even more than she was before and her drug dependence seems to be worsening. I did have one small issue and that is if her drug addiction is as bad as it’s supposed to be then I’m sure someone from the church would have noticed by now.

The storyline in this book was a good mix of the ghosts / murdering plot and the personal lives of the main characters. I thought it was well paced and it kept me thoroughly entertained throughout. It has left me really looking forward to reading the third book.

Stacia Kane - Unholy Ghosts

Ghosts are real and dangerous. The Church of real Truths now runs things and Chess works for them as a debunker, investigating hauntings and dealing with the ghosts. She is also a drug addict and now her dealer wants her to sort out a problem for her but it could get her into trouble with the Church or put her in great danger.

At first I struggled to get into this book. The plot seemed a little slow and the way the characters spoke was annoying at best and confusing at worst. However, I soon managed to get used to that and the plot really picked up the pace and I was soon drwan into the story.

Chess is an interesting character. She is quite intelligent and generally likeable and she seems quite real. She is not fearless and can be vulnerable but she is still strong. I found her drug addiction quite annoying and felt that as she was intelligent she should be doing something about it, especially as it had landed her into a bad situation that was escalating rapidly.

So after a shaky start I ended up really enjoying this book and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.