Audiobook Review – The Voodoo Killings (Kincaid Strange, Book 1) by Kristi Charish, narrated by Susannah Jones (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 11 hours and 43 minutes (352 pages)
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: May 10, 2016
ASIN: B01F63TXG2
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Kincaid Strange series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

“Kristi Charish’s The Voodoo Killings introduces Kincaid Strange, not your average voodoo practitioner…

For starters, she’s only 27. Then there’s the fact that she lives in rain-soaked Seattle, which is not exactly Haiti. And she’s broke. With raising zombies outlawed throughout the continental USA, Kincaid has to eke out a living running seances for university students with more money than brains who are desperate for guitar lessons with the ghost of a Seattle grunge rocker–who happens to be Kincaid’s on-again, off-again roommate.

Then a stray zombie turns up outside her neighbourhood bar: Cameron Wight, an up-and-coming visual artist with no recollection of how he died or who raised him. Not only is it dangerous for Kincaid to be caught with an unauthorized zombie, she soon realizes he’s tied to a spate of murders: someone is targeting the zombies and voodoo practitioners in Seattle’s infamous Underground City, a paranormal hub. When the police refuse to investigate, the City’s oldest and foremost zombie asks Kincaid to help. Raising ghosts and zombies is one thing, but finding a murderer? She’s broke, but she’s not stupid.

And then she becomes the target…As the saying goes, when it rains it pours, especially in Seattle.”

Previous to read this book I had read Charish’s Adventures of Owl series which I really enjoy. I was excited to see a new urban fantasy series by Charish. This ended up being a well done urban fantasy series; I didn’t like it quite as much as The Adventures of Owl (which has some cool adventuring and neat locations).

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was well done. The narrator did a great job of conveying emotion and giving characters unique voices.

A lot about this series is very typical urban fantasy. The heroine is broke, constantly running herself into the ground; she also likes to run headlong into danger when she should be asking for help. She’s a practitioner (a nice name for necromancer) who is struggling to make ends meet after some new anti-zombie laws were passed in the US. She was just very typical urban fantasy heroine to me and there wasn’t a ton to set her apart from hundreds of other UF heroines out there.

The zombie Cameron (that Kincaid is taking care of) and the ghost Nate (that is Kincaid’s roommate) were actually more interesting to me. Cameron has some serious issues and an interesting back story, as does Nate. Kincaid has an ex-boyfriend who is a cop; he serves as Kincaid’s off again, on again love interest (there isn’t much romance in this book). I also enjoyed Lee Lang who is a mysterious zombie who runs the Underground.

Some of the rune based magic that is used for raising zombies/ghosts is interesting but never all that well explained. I liked the Underground and am curious to see more about it in future books. We get a bit of background on our heroine but not a ton. There is a nice twist at the end of the book that will leave readers wanted more.

The story is fast-paced and I do enjoy how this book wraps up one case but also has a larger story. This is my favorite kind of UF series.

Overall this is a decent start to a new urban fantasy series. I probably would have given this a higher review if I hadn’t read First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones right before this one; that book has many similar themes to this one but had a lot more personality and I ended up enjoying that book a lot more than this one. However, given that…this is a decent UF; I enjoyed the magic around raising the dead and some of the settings like the Underground. I wasn’t a huge fan of the characters and honestly enjoyed Charish’s Adventures of Owl series more. I do plan on reading the next book in this series because sometimes it takes me a couple books to really get into a UF series and I think this one has potential.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge