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    Black Magic Woman
    Black Magic Woman
    Black Magic Woman
    Audiobook10 hours

    Black Magic Woman

    Written by Justin Gustainis

    Narrated by Graham Winton

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Occult investigator Quincey Morris and his "consultant", white witch Libby Chastain, are hired to free a family from a deadly curse that appears to date back to the Salem witch trials. Fraught with danger, the trail finds them stalking the mysterious occult underworlds of Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans and New York, searching out the root of the curse. After surviving a series of terrifying attempts on their lives, the two find themselves drawn inexorably towards Salem itself - and the very heart of darkness. Black Magic Woman marks the start of an electrifying news series of supernatural thrillers following the exploits of occult investigators Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain, as they search out evil in the darkest corners of America. Author bio: Justin Gustainis grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania and is now a college professor living in upstate New York. Prior to his career in academe, he was, at various times, a soldier, garment worker, speechwriter and professional bodyguard. He earned Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Scranton (a school that figures prominently in several of his novels) and a Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Gustainis began writing fiction in the mid-1990s while maintaining his academic job. He focused initially on short stories, and won prizes in a number of writing contests, including the prestigious Raymond Carver story competition. His stories won the Graverson Award for Horror twice, in consecutive years. In 2008 he was accepted for and attended the Odyssey Writing Workshop. His books include the novels THE HADES PROJECT (2003), BLACK MAGIC WOMAN (2008), EVIL WAYS (2009), SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (2011) and HARD SPELL (2011), as well as an anthology he edited, THOSE WHO FIGHT MONSTERS: TALES OF OCCULT DETECTIVES (2011). He was married to Patricia Grogan from 1997 until her death in 2007. He finds that he misses her very much.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 15, 2018
    ISBN9781501974120
    Black Magic Woman

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    Reviews for Black Magic Woman

    3.5/5

    115 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Liked this story of two detectives chasing a ritual murderer across the US and also a South African policeman joining an FBI agent to do the same, Quincey Morris and his partner, Elizabeth "Libby" Chastain have the advantage that they know that sometimes things go bump in the night and know how to combat them. There's also a second story, and the primary story weaves through this, the second story is a story of centuries of revenge being carried out by descendants of one of the witches who died then, a family who are being cursed for no reasons of their own.I didn't quite feel engaged by the characters and didn't care enough for them to hunt up sequels but didn't hate it. I'm curious actually about what happens next and would like to know more, I think the story would have engaged me more if there wasn't the South African policeman and FBI agent, but overall it kept me reading
    • 2/5
      I was disappointed by this book, after looking forward to it due to a Jim Butcher blurb. I don't know what he saw in it. The early parts of the book introduced so many plots and characters in different timelines I couldn't keep them straight until halfway through. The latter half interweaves them more successfully, but I found the denouement flat. Beyond the plot, the writing itself was clunky. It could have benefited from a good copy editor who might have removed some of the clichés and digressions. The world creation (witches, demons etc.) was neither particularly original nor well conceived. I slogged through it to the end in principle, but all in all, a waste of time. Though I enjoy both occult novels and series books, I doubt if I'll seek out any of the sequels.
    • 5/5
      This was a great urban fantasy. The world Gustainis creates is very near our own but witches and curses are real. So are vampires and werewolves and zombies. The world was well-drawn and very realistic. Quincy Morris is a descendant of one of the people who killed Dracula. His family has been hunting the monsters for generations. He works as a consultant when people have problems that traditional routes have failed to solve. He often calls in Libby Chastain as a consultant when he needs questions answered by a practicing white witch. This case has them trying to end a curse that has been cast on a family. It looks like the roots of the curse date back all the way to the Salem Witch Trials. They travel around the US trying to get a lead on the black witch who is trying to get revenge for actions taken against an ancestor.Following the case from a different angle are FBI Special Agent Dale Fenton and Detective Sergeant Garth Van Dreenan from South Africa. Van Dreenan has come on the trail of a African black witch who is kidnapping and killing children to harvest their organs. Fenton and Van Dreenan and following her trail and Van Dreenan, who believes in magic, is trying to convince Fenton that it is all real. The book is filled with action and great characters. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more stories about Morris and Chastain.
    • 5/5
      Great book, it is a shame there are only 2 in the series.
    • 4/5
      Gustainis introduces his characters with finely drawn back stories revealed through intriguing scenes. Even evil characters have backgrounds as well as surprises, but there’s no question at all that evil is wrong. “Believers” and “non-believers” struggle to collaborate, communicate and coexist as the plot thickens. And America’s own Salem witches follow the paths laid out in history, while a white south-African policeman offers aid to the FBI.I really enjoyed the interplay of Gustainis’ characters, the slow revealing of secrets, and the final surprises in this book. Gustainis has created something really intriguing, and I can imagine searching for his future books just as eagerly as I already look for Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. If you like Harry Dresden, or if you’re looking for a grown-up Hermione Grainger, this is the book for you.
    • 2/5
      The book opens with a ponderous historical bit about the Salem witch trials. It quickly switches to a current-day one-man showdown of a vampire enclave. Then, the author goes to a great deal of trouble to draw on Bram Stoker's Dracula as historic fact and inform readers that his main character is the super-special great-grandson of one of Van Helsing's compatriots.I felt like the author drew upon Dracula and The Crucible too much, as if doing so would lend credence to his own work-- but it doesn't. It just makes him look like he's writing next-generation Dracula fanfiction, rather than his own legitimately published fantasy. I found the book schlocky and disappointing.
    • 5/5
      A promising start to what one hopes will prove to be an excellent series. The characters are good, plot is wonderful, and the entire novel is very involving. I couldn't put this down. Pick this book up for a paranormal good time.
    • 2/5
      anti-rec. The opening lulled me into a false sense that the author knew what he was doing, but squicky race issues + a Gary Stu hero = FAIL. I won't be picking up the next book in the series.
    • 2/5
      Even though I'm still reading this book, I'm posting a review now because I'm not sure if I'll be finishing this one. I find "Black Magic Woman" slow reading -- the plot isn't very gripping and the main characters don't come too far off the page. Most of all, I'm annoyed by little things in the writing, like the author's repeated use of full names. It's "Libby Chastain" did this, and "Quincey Morris" said that. I don't know what the stylistic goal was in using first and last names long past the first few chapters, but, since these are the two main characters I find it too stilted and fussy.
    • 4/5
      Quincy Morris and his sometime partner Libby Chastain are trying to break a centuries old curse on a family. The curse goes back to the Salem witch trials and Quincey needs to find the black witch who is responsible for the attacks on the family. At the same time, an FBI agent and a policeman from South Africa are hunting down a witch who is killing children to harvest organs to created some very strong black magic. These two stories intersect even though they people in the story do not realize it. This is a very good read. The pace of the story never lets up. It was very hard to put down. It is a classic good vs. evil story that relies heavily on magic. I really enjoyed it. There were a couple of odd detours that did not really have anything to do with the story but they were just mild distractions that cost the book 1/2 star. But I am looking forward to the next in the series.
    • 4/5
      Black Magic Woman is definitely a good start to a new series within the paranormal mystery genre. The story is easy to fall into, as there isn’t a lot of complicated setting background that needs explaining; the story is in our world, our time, except that all the things we dismiss as fantasy (like vampires and witchcraft, specifically) are all too real, and very dangerous.I really liked the main characters. Quincy is a good hero-figure, not all powerful or all knowing or any of those other attributes that can make supernatural leading characters annoying. I also liked the tie in to Bram Stoker’s classic, to explain his family history and how he got involved in the supernatural underworld when he isn’t a magic worker. Libby is interesting too; I almost feel like Justin Gustainis barely scratched the surface of her character.I also liked the African witchcraft and voodoo into the storyline, as well as the introduction of the South African detective who has seen black magic first hand. A lot of paranormal mysteries use a heavily euro-centric magical system, and it was nice to see the magic systems of other cultures brought into the genre. The parallel story line with the FBI agent and the South African investigator, also helped to keep up the dramatic tension.I was left with some questions at the end, as well as some hopes for the next book in the series. I was a little bothered by the anticlimactic way in which the “bad guys” died- there was no epic showdown, and it seemed almost too easy to kill them off. Maybe that was just for dramatic comparison to the real bad guy from the epilogue, who will probably be in the next book? Also, I would like to know more about both Quincy and Libby—how they started working together, past cases they have done together, as well as more about Quincy’s family history. I’d like to know more about Libby’s magic, too. Overall, though, it was an enjoyable read, and I’m looking forward to the next one in the series!