Bottle Demon

I said in some of my previous reviews that the first couple of books in Stephen Blackmoore's Eric Carter series read like Jim Butcher's early Dresden Files installments, what with them being short and episodic in format. By the end of the third volume, it sure looked as though we'd reached the end of the first story arc of this paranormal and gritty noir murder mystery series and there was real potential for bigger and better things to come. The fourth installment, Fire Season, was clearly a step in the right direction. And the fifth, Ghost Money, was Blackmoore's best novel yet. Even if this series wasn't growing in scope quite as quickly as the Dresden Files did, things were definitely looking up

And then the main character died. I know that he's a necromancer and an incarnation of the Aztec god of death to boot, which means that this is not the end per se, but it did appear to put a damper on everything. Hence, I was curious to see what the author had in store for us.

Here's the blurb:

The sixth book of this dark urban fantasy series follows necromancer Eric Carter through a world of vengeful gods and goddesses, mysterious murders, and restless ghosts.

The Necromancer is dead. Long live the Necromancer.

After being attacked by a demon in the one place he thought he was safe, Eric Carter has been killed, his soul sent to take its place as a stand-in for the Aztec god of death Mictlantecuhtli. But somebody on Earth isn't done with him, yet. Somebody with the power to bring him back from the dead. He doesn't know who, and worse he doesn't know why.

Between an angry death goddess, family secrets steeped in blood, a Djinn who's biding his time, and a killer mage who can create copy after copy of himself, Eric's new life looks to be just as violent as his last one. But if he doesn't get to the bottom of why he's back, it's going to be a hell of a lot shorter.

Immediately after being brought back to life, people are already trying to kill Eric Carter again. Suffering from amnesia, he doesn't understand who is behind his resurrection and why he was brought back to the land of the living. Moreover, he can't fathom why someone is going through such lengths to murder him once more. In an attempt to figure out what is going on, he gets in touch with Letitia, only to realize that five years have passed since he first died. Los Angeles is slowly being rebuilt, but signs of destruction are still widespread across the city. Eric soon discovers that the wards covering the bottle holding the Djinn Darius prisoner are unraveling and will soon fail altogether. Which could spell doom for the rest of the world and everyone in it. As Mictlantecuhtli, Eric is the only one who can perhaps find a way to strengthen them. Trouble is, different factions in the magical world want to either help him or get rid of him, and Eric has no idea who's really on his side and who's trying to destroy him. Time is of the essence, with only a few days before the wards break down and the Djinn escapes.

Returning to life in a new body and after spending five years as Mictlantecuhtli, Eric now has more empathy and compassion than he ever did in his past life. Don't worry, he's still the foul-mouthed smartass whose touch turns almost everything to shit. But he's a more well-rounded indivual this second time around. Who would have thought that dying would provide such character development? And yet, in all the ways that matter, he's still the plain old Eric Carter. The reunion with Letitia was nice, but I'm not sure I'm happy with what happened between Eric and Gabriella. The villains were a bit weaker than in previous books, however. As I said before, I hate the fact that the market demands that urban fantasy books be short and relatively fast-paced works. With only the 300 pages or so that Stephen Blackmoore gets to work with, it feels as though he couldn't properly build up the endgame that Bottle Demon needed to be a really good novel. Being unable to flesh out the villains and their motivations hurt the plot, no doubt about it. Especially not explaining how the Dollmaker's powers work and how his puppets can be perfect copies of the people they impersonate. This robbed the ending of the impact it was meant to have.

With Ghost Money ending with the ultimate cliffhanger and Bottle Demon starting with a resurrected Eric Carter already dodging bullets, there are no rhythm issues to report. If anything, given the time table the characters need to work with in order to prevent Darius' escape from the bottle, this might well be the most fast-paced volume of the series.

The endgame was shaping up to be another thrilling ride toward an exciting finale, but the resolution of the Djinn's storyline left a little something to be desired. I'm not going to spoil anything, but how such a powerful being as Darius couldn't see through the good guys' stratagem somewhat cheapens the whole thing. Having said that, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him. But the rushed ending would have benefited from a few extra pages. In addition, since that threat appeared to be the underlying arc of the entire series, I'm wondering if Bottle Demon will act as some sort of transition book that will bridge what has gone before and what will come after. Time will tell. . .

The final verdict: 7.5/10

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