Sometimes, they come back again

 I was kind of shocked to find out David R. Slayton's Redneck Revenant existed, since I though book 3 was a series ender. But no, Book 4 came out, the library didn't have a copy, so I managed to get an InterLibrary Loan to get a copy, mainly because I don't own any of the first 3 books, and I try to avoid buying hardcovers if I don't own any of the other books. 

Anyway, Adam (the Redneck Warlock) and his boyfriend Vic (the Latino Reaper) are still dating, but not quite moving forward. Adam's brother, Bobby, whom Adam is still living with, get a shock when his dead wife shows up on the doorstep, alive and fully healed. Yes, Annie, who died while possessed by something older than Death, is alive and well with no memory of of pretty much anything that happened in the last few days she was alive. 

What follows is finding out why her Mom and Dad brought her back to life, who the mysterious spirit wearing a wolf mask is, and sorting out Elven Court drama. 

Which is all exquisitely readable and absorbing, even as we get hit with themes of forgiveness and acceptance, none of which is easy for the traumatized. 

I'm happy to see that this series is continuing, I just wish I had known sooner.  

The long road

 So, finally finished Deadbeat Druid, the final book of David R. Slayton's Adam Binder Trilogy.

Now, when we left off, Vincente got pulled into the Underworld along with Adam's Great Grandfather, leaving Adam to seek out Death herself. In this volume, we get to spiral through hell, as Vic and Jodi (and new acquaintance Mel make their way from the Ebon Sea to what they hope is Adam, while Adam is spiraling down to hopefully find and recover Vic and Jodi and Mel as well as Grandpa. While the actual plot here doesn't matter as much, since it really boils down to everyone meeting in the middle followed by some twists that get resolved by the end, but I will say this vision of the migration of souls after death is actually kind of interesting. See, in an underworld not polluted by the living (of which we have 7, as Bobby and Vran are with Adam), souls journey down the spirals to the sea, losing their emotions, hurts, longings, etc to demons on the way down. (It's kind of a whole biome/ecosystem.) Problem being with Mel having arrived roughly a century before, many of the demons have gained some form of sentience, which means they're no longer fulfilling their function. Which leads to things like Sanctuary, where one of the "living demons" is saving souls not ready to move on from moving on, or a living hotel demon using Bobby Sr to draw in Adam and Bobby Jr. 

Really, the entire cosmology here is what ended up sucking me in, as did the appearance of Death's opposite number, and exactly what he represents.

It's a good read, although the stakes aren't exactly world altering, but they're extremely personal.

I'd be more than interested in reading more in this setting.

And you thought your family had skeletons

 So, finished David R. Slayton's Trailer Park Trickster this morning, which was a worthy follow up to the first book. 

So, this time we have TWO focus characters, and it's a bit better balanced as to who we're following at any given point in time, although frankly, it's basically two very different stories that overlap a lot. The major one, focused on Adam, involves what happens when he goes back to Guthrie, Oklahoma, to deal with the death of his Aunt Sue, the woman who taught him to use what magic he has. The other involves his boyfriend Vincinte, who catches a ride to the funeral with the Queen of Swords, AKA Argent, of the Winter Elves. Except...well...

See, Bobby is dealing with the fact that Aunt Sue left all of her possessions to her sister Noreen and Noreen's daughter Jodi. Neither of whom like Adam. And who happen to be there when Sue's trailer blows up when he arrives. Which sets off Adam's part of the story, as he finds out Jodi has a bit of the Sight, and has been hustling money trying to pick up Sue's old customers. Unfortunately, she's also been invoking The Druid, the bad Warlock who's been making bog iron charms and who up until recentkly, Adam thought might be his father.

Vincinte (AKA Vic), on the other hand, winds up getting mixed up in Elvish affairs as someone attacks the car on the way to Oklahoma from Denver.  This leads to the Sea Elves (suite of Cups), who want control of the fallen Tower of the East, and also want to flood the human world to get rid of all humans. The Sea Elves try to kill Silver, the Knight of Swords and Ada's ex boyfriend. Which Vic, being a Reaper, is then charged with being a witness at a meeting of the Races. He's also pissed when he figures out Adam lied to him about what happened to Adam's father, and more irritated when he finds out the bond he shares with Adam is considered a marriage by the Immortal races.

The stories overlap a few times, as everyone gets together to share notes. We do eventually find out the name of the Evil Druid, and Robert's new job title gets used twice between the story arcs. And there's one passage towards the end that really really kind of hurt to read, as Vic gets a visit from his father's ghost and has a heart to heart that had me wondering how much of it was the author trying to reconcile with his own father, all the while making me wish it was MY dad and I having this long distance conversation. 

I look forward to book 3 and how we're going to resolve everything that happens here.

Hard scrabble magick

 So, a recent trip to the Book Loft piqued my curiosity about David R. Slayton's Adam Binder series, but they didn't have the first book in the series. Thankfully, the library did, so I'm now able to review White Trash Warlock having finished it.

So, our main character here is one Adam Binder, currently of Guthrie, Oklahoma, and the trailer court he lives in with Aunt Sue. As we meet Adam, he's busy trying to claim a hexed pool cue enchanted with bog iron and a saurian bone. (That there are fantasy creatures running around is the first big reveal.) Sam ends up talking to Tanner (who's Dad bought him the cue at a pawn shop in Denver) and winds up making out with him. (Adam being gay is the second big reveal.) Mind you, they guy who Tanner beat at pool prior to the make out session turns out to be what Adam thought was an extinct Saurian, which leads to Adam bargaining with the lizards to spare Tanner. 

This takes up about 3 chapters, then the meat of the story gets going, as Adam's successful brother, Doctor Robert Binder of Denver, texts Adam out of the blue because Robert's wife is evidently possessed. Robert doesn't particularly believe in or perceive the preternatural, but after finding his wife pushing a baby carriage around with a demon baby inside, he's forced to call his brother. 

Adam is justifiably upset about hearing from his older brother, since older brother had him institutionalized in high school. However, Adam does wind up driving to Denver on the advice of Aunt Sue.

When he gets there, we find out about an entity floating over Denver that eats Magick, and has begun causing problems for both the humans and the other less involved in this layer of reality species. Adam also manages to bind himself with a cop he just met, and find out his ex BF the elf is still around. 

Honestly, this was an engaging read that I really enjoyed. I loved the idea that reality is a sandwich, with humanity being the bologna in the middle, and elves, leprechauns, gnomes, etc existing in the mayo and lettuce. I enjoyed the idea that the Watchtowers changed anchors and presentation depending on where you were. (In Oklahoma, they're various plains landmarks; in Colorado,m they change based on the mountains.) About the only thing that bothered me was the alternating focus characters. While Adam is the main character, Robert/Bobby becomes the focus a few times. For me at least, that the narrative exchange was at random intervals bothered me.That's a minor gripe. 

It really fit the bill of what I was looking for in reading material at the moment.