Review--Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore

Necromancer is such an ugly word, but it's a title Eric Carter is stuck with.

He sees ghosts, talks to the dead. He’s turned it into a lucrative career putting troublesome spirits to rest, sometimes taking on even more dangerous things. For a fee, of course.

When he left L.A. fifteen years ago he thought he’d never go back. Too many bad memories. Too many people trying to kill him.

But now his sister’s been brutally murdered and Carter wants to find out why.

Was it the gangster looking to settle a score? The ghost of a mage he killed the night he left town? Maybe it’s the patron saint of violent death herself, Santa Muerte, who’s taken an unusually keen interest in him.

Carter’s going to find out who did it and he’s going to make them pay.

As long as they don’t kill him first.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


Stephen Blackmoore's Dead Things was while an intriguing read, one that I just couldn't get into 100%. Don't get me wrong, it was still entertaining, but I wasn't fully invested in the storyline. I'm not sure why I wasn't fully invested in the story, it sounded interesting enough and while I did enjoy bits and pieces, it just wasn't a fave for me.

Eric Carter is a necromancer and it's not an easy job to say the least. Then one day he gets a call from an old friend and is told his sister is dead, murdered. Eric had run away from home after "events" and hadn't looked back in all the fifteen years he'd been gone and now he returns.

Being what he is, he's in contact with quite a few death deities and they sometimes help him out. Usually they're sending him to go off a ghost or something like that and pay him in return, but when he needs their help in this matter, they really have no answers.

Returning home proves to be as disastrous as expected. People are still mad at him for a variety of things, but what probably stings the most is seeing his ex-girlfriend with his old friend. He learns quite a bit about what's happened since he was gone. Learns new things about his sister than he never knew before. It puts a lot of things into perspective for him.

Turns out the big bad ghost that Eric has to deal with since it's what killed his sister is someone he used to know...and was pretty much the driving force that made him decide to leave town.

The book was decently paced. At times I felt like Eric deviated a little too much from trying to solve his sister's murder. What usually happened was his following a clue and being completely detailed by somebody else. I don't know, I just felt like at times he got "derailed" a bit too much for my liking.

There wasn't much for romance, but that was sort of expected in my opinion. But there definitely seems like something could be possible in the future since he's back in contact with his ex. But who's to say. 

Although we do learn some juicy details towards the end. They are kind of mindblowingly shocking. And it almost kind of nagged at me that we got this revelation because it seemed like it came out of left field. But then we do learn that there were very subtle hints, but I guess I just missed them! But the shock factor of it all was still pretty good, I just wished I could've seen those hints better at the time!


Overall Rating 2/5 stars--again, this rating just means it was an okay read.