Format: Paperback, 432 pages
Release Date: February 18, 2020
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Source: Library
Genre: Urban Fantasy
The third and final installment in Kristi Charish's thrilling urban
fantasy series finds beloved heroine and voodoo practitioner Kincaid
Strange shanghaied away from Seattle and pursuing the ghost of a serial
killer in Portland.
Just when Kincaid Strange thinks her life
is back on track and she's finally put her time as a paranormal
practitioner with the Seattle PD to rest, her ex (and Seattle cop) Aaron
asks her for help with yet another strange and ominous case. Martin
Dane, the White Picket Fence Serial Killer who terrorized West Coast
families living the suburban American dream, appears to be back at it
with a fresh murder in Portland. There's only one problem: Dane has been
dead for three weeks.
Kincaid can't resist a paranormal
mystery. Despite her misgivings, she agrees to examine the Portland
crime scene. What she discovers is a place of supernatural power unlike
anywhere she's ever been--and the reason Aaron had been so tight-lipped
about the case details. There's already a voodoo practitioner on the
scene: Liam Sinclair, a TV celebrity of questionable talent and dubious
intent.
Kincaid wants nothing more than to finish the job and
retreat to Seattle, but the deeper she looks, the less the murder adds
up. When she uncovers a much more sinister mystery--missing ghosts,
scores of them, whom no one is looking for--there's no turning back.
Voodoo Shanghai, by author Kristi Charish, is the third and final, unfortunately, installment in the authors Kincaid Strange series. As the story beings, trouble is on the horizon for Kincaid. First, she is hired to take care of a problem ghost named Astrid Young. Astrid is desperately spoiled and an angry zombie who her parents are tired of having around. Astrid has been manipulating everyone around her for most of her life. Astrid, unfortunately doesn't understand that people really don't like her or want her around which leads to all sorts of issues for Kincaid.
Second, we learn more about Gideon and why he choose Kincaid. Gideon is the thousand-year-old ghost of a sorcerer who took Kincaid on as his apprentice in the previous book. Before this book, I honestly though Gideon was pure evil. But it becomes clear that he has his own moral code, as grey as it may be, and we get a taste of the past that has made him who he is today. Gideon pushes Kincaid to do things she never thought possible. Like making mirrors for a soothsayer named Richan which leads to a dangerous encounter for Kincaid and a warning from one of his time traveling ghosts. A warning Kincaid really should have taken more serious.
To make matters worse, after Seattle PD Detective Aaron Baal stabbed her in the back, that relationship is finished. Now wants he, and Captain Marks, pretty much orders Kincaid to go to Portland to face a serial killing ghost who appears to be back with a vengeance. That means working with Stephan Wolf (FBI agent) and stopping Martin Dane, the White Picket Fence Serial Killer who terrorized West Coast families living the suburban American dream, appears to be back at it with a fresh murder in Portland. There's only one problem: Dane has been dead for three weeks.
Kincaid can't resist a paranormal mystery or going up against people who are dangerous like Marks, like Richan, and yes, even Gideon. Despite her misgivings, she agrees to examine the Portland crime scene. What she discovers is a place of supernatural power unlike anywhere she's ever been--and the reason Aaron had been so tight-lipped about the case details. There's already a voodoo practitioner on the scene: Liam Sinclair, a TV celebrity of questionable talent and dubious intent. Liam, along with his cousin Isabel, are either going to be helpful, or they are going to be a hindrance.
Kincaid wants nothing more than to finish the job and retreat to Seattle, and hopefully get approved for her federal paranormal license so that she can expand her business outside of Seattle. But the deeper she looks, the less the murder adds up. When she uncovers a much more sinister mystery--missing ghosts, scores of them, whom no one is looking for--there's no turning back.
*Thoughts* Here's the thing, I do not have Instagram where the author has posted why this is the final chapter in her series. It does appear as though the author did not know what Vintage Canada was going to do with the series. I do know that I am grateful that I am finally able to finish this series after all the bull..... with COVID and not being able to mail anything from Canada to the US. But I am totally and absolutely wrecked.
Charish throws everything she possible could and somehow it wasn't enough. Shifting the action from Seattle to Portland not only was a brilliant move by the author, but it took Kincaid out of her element and isolating her from her
usual support structure, except for Nate and Gideon, while forcing her to face challenges that would make your hair turn white. In all honesty, I really do hope that Kristi is able to come back to Kincaid one day in the future to tie up the loose ends that she left behind.
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