Waiting On Wednesday #147 - The Voodoo Killings

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

The Voodoo Killings - Kristi Charish

ISBN - 9780345815880

Publisher - Vintage Canada

Release date - May 10 2016

Find - Goodreads 

For the first time since we launched Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, Random House Canada is thrilled to announce the debut of a new urban fantasy series. Kristi Charish's The Voodoo Killings introduces Kincaid Strange, not your average voodoo practitioner...

For starters, she's only 27. Then there's the fact that she lives in rain-soaked Seattle, which is not exactly Haiti. And she's broke. With raising zombies outlawed throughout the continental USA, Kincaid has to eke out a living running seances for university students with more money than brains who are desperate for guitar lessons with the ghost of a Seattle grunge rocker--who happens to be Kincaid's on-again, off-again roommate.

Then a stray zombie turns up outside her neighbourhood bar: Cameron Wight, an up-and-coming visual artist with no recollection of how he died or who raised him. Not only is it dangerous for Kincaid to be caught with an unauthorized zombie, she soon realizes he's tied to a spate of murders: someone is targeting the zombies and voodoo practitioners in Seattle's infamous Underground City, a paranormal hub. When the police refuse to investigate, the City's oldest and foremost zombie asks Kincaid to help. Raising ghosts and zombies is one thing, but finding a murderer? She's broke, but she's not stupid.

And then she becomes the target...As the saying goes, when it rains it pours, especially in Seattle.

I'm a huge fan of Kristi Charish and love her Adventures Of Owl series so this sounds fantastic. Alas, to start with it looks like it's just a Canadian release but fingers crossed it will get picked elsewhere too.

Hexed - Kevin Hearne

Hexed (Iron Druid Chronicles #2) - Kevin Hearne

ISBN - 9780345522498

Publisher - Del Rey

Release date - June 7 2011

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty - when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.

With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex...

I originally picked up the first couple of Iron Druid Chronicles as someone recommended them as an excellent way to fill the gap in between instalments of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and then let them sit on my TBR  mountain for a couple of years... I read Hounded in July last year and loved it, went out and bought all the available books and promptly moved on to something else. Fast forward to this year and I've just finished my epic re-read/finishing off of the Dresden Files and found Hexed, Hammered and Tricked sitting underneath them. Obviously a sign that it's time to read them!

At the end of Hounded (which I never reviewed but gave 4 stars on Goodreads) Atticus has found himself with his first apprentice in some time and cautiously optimistic about the future. However, Leif (his centuries old vampire lawyer of course) wants him to take on a new quest - to kill Thor! Before he even has time to contemplate this Atticus gets caught up in some witchy business. The coven he's about to sign a peace treaty with are being targeted by an old enemy, one that has Atticus in their sights too.

Joined by the motley assortment of characters we were introduced to in the first book Atticus is soon up to his eyeballs in trouble again. Oberon, (nearly) everyone's favorite Irish Wolfhound, is back with his brilliantly witty (for a dog) commentary, the Widow MacDonagh gets to see more of our druid than an elderly lady probably should and there are goddesses fighting over him each with their own nefarious reasons for wanting Atticus to be dedicated purely to them. We get to know a little bit more about Granuaile and Laksha makes a brief reappearance too.

Hexed is an excellent addition to Hounded, I love Kevin Hearne's writing which makes the story move along nicely without stalling and the fact that mythology is the main theme this really is my perfect sort of book/series. It would be completely unfair to compare the Iron Druid Chronicles to the Dresden Files as they're both so different but I'm glad I listened to my friend's recommendation. I now have two favorite urban fantasy series instead of one and I can't wait to see what happens to Atticus in Hammered.

Iron Druid Chronicles

Hounded
Hexed
Hammered
Tricked
Trapped
Hunted
Shattered
Staked

Guest Post: Feeding the Muse - Rachel Neumeier

Black Dog by Rachel Neumeier is published on February 4th in the US and February 6th in the UK. I loved Black Dog so when the lovely folks at Strange Chemistry were looking for blog tour participants I jumped at the chance to take part. Without further ado, please welcome Rachel!

Feeding the Muse

Thanks for the invite to The Bookish Outsider – it’s a pleasure to be here!

BLACK DOG is a bit of a departure for me, as you may know – my first contemporary (or contemporary-ish) fantasy, my first paranormal (or paranormal-ish) fantasy.  Even for a semi-established author, it’s hard to break into the urban fantasy/paranormal/werewolf/vampire crowd, and the only reason to try it is because your muse gives you a push you can’t ignore.  

As it happens, I know just when I started reading UF and paranormals.  It was some years ago, when a convention put me on a werewolf panel.  Now, I had nothing in particular against werewolves, but in fact I hadn’t ever read any books featuring werewolves.  None.  After all, I had no shortage of other fantasy novels on my TBR pile, and who can even begin to know where to start in a genre that has blown up so far so fast?  But I didn’t like to tell the convention folks I couldn’t do their panel, so instead I picked up a handful of werewolf stories real quick.

One of those was MOON CALLED by Patricia Briggs.  

I probably don’t have to tell you how I fell in love with Mercy Thompson, and with Bran and Samuel and Adam and the whole world of werewolves.  I read the rest of the series and then branched out:  Ilona Andrews and Kelly Armstrong, Charlaine Harris and JR Ward.  But for me, Mercy Thompson was the first – and I still think that this series is the most consistently outstanding.  You can bet that I’ll be right there when NIGHT BROKEN hits the shelves this year!

So, indirectly – or actually pretty directly – Patricia Briggs is responsible for BLACK DOG.  Because you know how it is, when you fall in love with a series.  You hate to leave those characters, that world, that reality.  So, in my case, I created my own reality and world and characters.  

Of course my world isn’t actually much like the world of the Mercy Thompson series, barring both being contemporary-ish.  And my black dogs aren’t much like Briggs’ werewolves, either.  I kept the “hot-tempered werewolf” trope, but took it a step further by giving my black dogs an actual demonic twist.  I liked the idea of making most werewolves male, but created new reasons for that gender imbalance to occur – I could explain the exact genetics behind my black dogs and the Pure, I worked it all out, though those details did not make it into the book!  I loved the idea of one central authority for werewolves, but handed my Dimilioc a recent crushing Pyrrhic victory to reduce their effective power.  And, of course, I killed off the vampires in the recent backstory.

But Patricia Briggs’ series was the one that acted as a muse, giving me a strong push to write a werewolf story in the first place.

A huge thank you to Rachel for stopping by! I'm ashamed to admit that although I have owned a copy of Moon Called for several years I still haven't read it... I will definitely rectify that - and soon! Look out for my review of Black Dog coming in the next couple of days!