I enjoy this writer's Harmony Black series. This series has a touch of the new Greek mythology trend in it. Luckily, I enjoy that, too. And yet I found bits of it to be too much: too much backstory of too many characters, too much movement of too many characters. The first book builds the world, so if this series continues, I would imagine the next book would be less heavy on memory moments.

If you told me to read a book about modern day witches I’d probably pass. But, since I only skimmed the description, this came across as a bibliomystery, which immediately piqued my interest. And what a good thing that was. I mean, this book does actually have a terrific bibliomystery (a different and terrifyingly literal interpretation of a famous Poe story) as its spine, but a lot of the plot has to do with witches. Then again there are also cults or secret societies and conspiracies and occult and suspense and towards the end it gets positively cosmic, so there’s much to love here. But the main thing is that Craig Schaefer is just such a great storyteller. The man seems to specialize in series and trilogies of the similarly natured occult mysteries and since series and trilogies aren’t really my thing, never heard of him until now, but this book is certainly good enough to put him on the radar of any reader interested in speculative fiction. Wildly imaginative scenarios, genre mixing, great characters, realistic dialogue, situations even, despite how otherworldly the ideas get. It just all came together so nicely and worked so well. Last time I’ve experienced this kind of mad mash up of awesome was reading Gene Doucette, probably, which is a high praise indeed. Just a stunningly inventive, genuinely exciting and very, very entertaining adventure. This book is probably going to end up as a book one is either series or trilogy too, there’s certainly enough world building in here to sustain it and it’s possible I wouldn’t be averse to reading it then, if only to see if the magic stays magical as it were. Honesty, I’d be very happy with this book if it never introduced any amount of supernatural into it at all or was very minimal with it and just stay a bibliomystery with an investigative reporter (with a past he tries to hide…oh, and this deserves a mention, what sort of a person tries to disassociate himself from his past by…get this…just dropping one letter from the end of his last name. Like that’s it, from Paget to Page. And for a public figure with a book out and all. That’s the great disguise. How it takes all those years for someone to put two and two together is a miracle. And even though Page’s wanting his past to stay secret is a huge motivation to propel the plot forward, it’s the least logical detail of the book. And the book has magic and witches in it. Madness.) entering into a deal with a shadowy wealthy old woman to find a manuscript for her collection. But the author chose to go with magic and it worked and was tons of fun. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

It was Ok, but not terribly memorable. I never was able to get involved with either of the main characters... or the plot.

Actual rating: 4.5/5

Lionel Page has made a name for himself digging into hoaxes, frauds, and con artists. As an investigative reporter, he’s busted psychics, faith healers and miracle men, exposing their powers for nothing more but parlour tricks.

He’s proved repeatedly that magic didn’t exist. Craig Schaefer’s proved him wrong.

Lionel’s new case gets weird fast. He must believe in the unbelievable or die. Simple.

Schaefer is one of my favourite storytellers. His insane plotting skills impress me more than his utilitarian prose. That said, I appreciate the way he wrote Ghosts of Gotham. It’s easy to read and easy to understand.

Schaefer sets his story in a grim and noisy New York. You don’t have to look far to experience the dark side of humanity The Modern Gomorrah. Rumour has it that Hecate, an arch-manipulator, chose NY as her base. The narrative tallies closely with the Macbeth play though there are a few additions which start things off with an appropriate bang.

For the most part, this story is split between two main characters:

Lionel Page(t) an investigative reporter irresistibly drawn to mysteries. He hasn’t recovered from a childhood trauma (a psycho has killed his mother and people unfortunate enough to host her). He’s a workaholic whose life turns around exposing fake miracles.

Maddie has years of experience and violent past she tries to run away from. Her relationships with other humans are troubled and determined by her self-loathing. But make no mistake. Don’t even try to push her around. Unless you have a death wish.

Characterisation is great and much deeper than in Craig’s other books. I loved getting into Maddie’s chapters. Especially as it becomes obvious that you should never toy with her. Lionel’s chapters are equally good. Maybe even more poignant. He has no choice but to abandon his skepticism and plunge head-on in the world of dark magic and monsters.

I loved all the directions that the story went. I enjoyed foreshadowing that lead to surprising but inevitable twists. Schaefer does them remarkably well. In essence, it’s a simple story about revenge, loneliness, and life. Very Greek. Very emotional, but also fast and furious.

You’ll get to see demons, goblins, witches, semi-goddesses, and others I don’t want to spoil for you. The ending made me excited and satisfied. I wish it wasn’t a standalone book. I loved every minute of it and wouldn’t mind following Lionel’s future endeavours

I don't usually cross over from science fiction to horror but I do have fond memories of the days when I would read Lovecraft, Machen, et al so when I'm caught up with science fiction I might take a chance on a horror novel or collection. This one appeared in the science fiction and fantasy category so figured it would have enough otherworldliness to satisfy but that ended up not being the case. It''s more like a Scooby Doo where the monsters are finally real. The opening scene is a debunking of a TV healer, which comes across as a pet peeve of the author's. The right reader might go for this but it wasn't "weird" enough for me.