The Voodoo Killings

I'm not really much for zombies and I found myself rolling my eyes during the first chapter but then it turned into a completely unexpected pleasure as our sassy narrator is tasked with finding a voodoo-skilled murderer while simultaneously babysitting a charming but recently deceased artist. Totally fun and charming.

I recieved a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.

This was just a delightful read. Kincaid is a very archetypal urban fantasy protagonist - she's snarky and funny, barely keeping her life together in most areas, but with just enough badassery that she gets through the day. Beyond just being that archetype, though, Charish fills her with enough sass and edge that she's a lot of fun to follow on her adventure.

Beyond that, the world that Charish builds here has a lot of verisimilitude. It's a world filled with zombies and ghosts, but their motivations for being there (and for other people wanting to keep them around) ring very true - dead grunge rockers being summoned to give people guitar lessons, voodoo practitioners being asked to raise zombies to settle contract disputes - it's at the same time both very mundane and fantastical, and the tension between the two really makes the story sing.

Kincaid Strange is a practitioner in Seattle. Her job used to include raising zombies to aid the police in paranormal investigations. Until raising zombies was outlawed. Now she does seances and other blah jobs just to pay the bills. Life is one boring day after another until a newly raised zombie turns up at one of her hangouts. She can't be caught with a zombie and risk going to jail, but, she can't just leave him either. He has no memory of how or why he was turned. In her quest to help him, she uncovers a string of murders targeting practitioners. With so few left, could she be next? I loved this book! I can't wait for more!

This book is absolutely dripping with Seattle atmosphere, which as a Washingtonian “ex-pat” I absolutely appreciated. Kincaid is a definite and capable narrator, and the lore of this zombified-world is built up to include ghosts, ghouls, poltergeists, and more. It was interesting, for sure, but it did end on a bit of a cliffhanger!

yeeeeees! zombies and murder most foul and really complicated problems.

Urban Fantasy can be kind of hit or miss for me, but this one sounded intriguing so I thought I've give it a go...



Kincaid is a 27 year old voodoo practitioner/witch who gets called to help when a mysterious newly risen zombie wanders into her local bar. From there a story unfolds with twists and turns. We meet Nate her ghost roommate. Cameron the newly risen Zombie. Max her practitioner mentor, and Aaron her ex-boyfriend a cop. Along the way we also meet some more zombies, ghosts, poltergeists, and ghouls.

I enjoyed this one A LOT. It took a bit to get going, but since this seems to be the first book in a series the author had a lot of World building groundwork to lay. It soon picked up pace and I found myself having a hard time putting it down. It had a great cast of likable characters that I look forward to hearing more from.

Overall I am glad I gave this one a shot and will definitely be continuing on with the series.