Gizmo's Reviews: #Review / #Blog Tour - Spells for the Dead by Faith Hunter #Fantasy #Giveaway

Series: Soulwood # 5
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
Release Date: July 28th 2020
Publisher: ACE
Source: Publisher
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Nell Ingram faces a dark craft known as death magic in the newest pulse-pounding paranormal procedural in the New York Times bestselling Soulwood series.

Nell Ingram is a rookie PsyLed agent, using the powers she can channel from deep within the earth to solve paranormal crimes. Together with her team, she's taken on the darkest magic and the direst foes. But she'll need to tap into every ounce of power she has for her newest case.

Nell is called to the Tennessee mansion of a country music star and finds a disturbing scene—dead bodies rapidly decaying before everyone's eyes. The witch on her team, T. Laine, knows this can only be one thing: death magic, a rare type of craft used to steal life forces. PsyLed needs to find this lethal killer fast. But when a paranormal-hating FBI agent tries to derail the investigation, they find themselves under attack from all sides.

Spells for the Dead is the fifth installment in author Faith Hunter's Soulwood series featuring Psychometric Law Enforcement Division of Homeland Security Special Agent Nell Ingram. It would benefit readers greatly to start reading this series from the beginning, including Jane Yellowrocks series when Nell is first introduced. A whole lot has happened since the first novel. Nell is no longer the probationary member of PsyLED. That title now belongs to Special Agent Margot Racer who came over from the FBI after an incident in Circle of the Moon.

PsyLED Unit Eighteen also has a new up line boss, Ayatas Firewind, who readers will would have met in Jane Yellowrocks series. He, like Jane, are Skinwalkers and they love to shake things up. No, Rick LaFleur has not been given his walking papers. He's got more responsibilities as PsyLED Tennessee is rapidly expanding. He and Margot are teamed up on another case for most of the story. Nell is steadily growing, learning her place within the team. She is the person who does most of the research while also understanding that she is something nobody has ever seen before. We have had a debate about what Nell really is. A witch named Etain Doyle actually calls her a Earth spriggan as well as a sprite.

At the home of superstar Stella Mae Ragel, Nell, who was requested to be there by her new boss Ayatas, and her teammates T. Laine Kent and Occam, discover some rather disturbing discoveries. Not only is Stella dead, but so are her housekeeper, and members of the band and the list is growing. The disturbing discovery is that the bodies are rapidly decaying. Is this a chemical, biological, or radiological attack, or something darker? While Kent can detect and identify blood and dark magic, her connection to other witch covens has slowly shattered. The solution to this mystery may something that Nell and her connection to the Earth might be able to deal with.

While Nell and her team are hard at work uncovering a twisted mystery, Nell's personal life has taken a giant leap towards adulthood. With the forthcoming adoption of her younger sister Mud aka Mindy, and her very pregnant sister Esther living in her house, Nell has to pay big sister, mother, and referee to all the issues that seem to pop up whenever she's not around. Nell's sisters are just like her, but Esther is the one who is having major issues dealing with what she is. For the first time, I find myself actually liking Nell's family, especialy her brother Sam who seems to have accepted all her eccentricities and her relationship with Occam.

Nell's relationship with Occam has come to the point where they can no longer hide the fact that they are together. While Occam sometimes feels the need to be overly protective, I assure you it is with good reasoning as Nell continues to put herself in harms way and sometimes doesn't know when to stop until Occam or Ayatas tell her to. I think at this point, it is all but a formatily that Nell and Occam will end up walking down the aisle and marrying. But, with that said, will that end the series as well? Can they really expect to work together in the same office while being married?

EXCERPT ONE

Superstar Stella Mae Ragel and her housekeeper were found dead at her horse farm at ten twenty this morning. According to JoJo at PsyLED HQ, another member of Stella’s staff was now dead, more were dropping like flies, and the media was beginning to gather, also like flies.

Because of the speed of the progression of the illness and the high-profile victim, Psychometric Law Enforcement Division of Homeland Security had been called in. My skill set didn’t include medicine, forensics, or any form of magic except my own, so I figured I had been requested to do the scut paperwork.

I’d had less trouble getting into a private, top-secret research and development center with government contracts than I did getting onto Stella Mae’s property. My personal ID, my PsyLED ID, the sticker on my official PsyLED vehicle, and the fact that my boss’ boss had put me on the list kept by the security team at the gate were the only reasons I got in at all. The media people shouted questions at the car through the entire ID and vetting process, most of them shrill and sounding a little rabid. Some demanded to know what drugs had killed the country singer. Some wanted to know if she’d taken her own life. Some seemed to believe she had been the target of a deranged stalker.

The winding gravel driveway to Melody Horse Farm was long enough to keep the house from view by the dozens of media vans and cars parked out front, but I spotted a drone overhead and a helicopter with a newsy daredevil hanging out the side with a shoulder-mounted camera, getting the views. I hoped he was strapped in. I hoped the drone stayed out of his way.

I pulled over to let two ambulances pass me, both units moving slow, not running lights and sirens, so I knew the occupants were not in life-threatening condition, just sick or wounded and needing medical help. Through the rear windows of the last ambulance, the man on the stretcher lifted a hand at me, waving. The African-American man wasn’t one of my team, and I didn’t recognize him. He was fully dressed out in a sky blue biohazard suit, which was not reassuring. The latest batch of unis had been color coded so we didn’t have to read labels in emergency situations, and the sky blue ones meant he was under precautions for everything: viral or bacterial pathogens or paranormal contagion or a combination of all three. We called them P3Es—paranormal personal protective equipment. When our team, PsyLED Unit Eighteen, was called in, there was always a para compo

About Faith Hunter:

Faith Hunter is the award-winning New York Times and USAToday bestselling author of the Jane Yellowrock, Soulwood, Rogue Mage, and Junkyard Cats series. In addition, she has edited several anthologies and co-authored the Rogue Mage RPG. She is the coauthor and author of 16 thrillers under pen names Gary Hunter and Gwen Hunter. Altogether she has 40+ books and dozens of short stories in print and is juggling multiple projects.

She sold her first book in 1989 and hasn’t stopped writing since.

Faith collects orchids and animal skulls, loves thunderstorms, and writes. She likes to cook soup, bake bread, garden, and kayak Class II & III whitewater rivers. She edits the occasional anthology and drinks a lot of tea. Some days she’s a lady. Some days she ain't.

Find Faith online at -

Website: www.faithhunter.net

Facebook (official): https://www.facebook.com/official.faith.hunter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faith.hunter?fref=ts

Twitter: @hunterfaith

Yellowrock Securities website: http://www.yellowrocksecurities.com

Gwen Hunter website: www.gwenhunter.com