Medium and clairvoyant Simon Kincaide owns a Myrtle Beach boardwalk shop where he runs ghost tours, holds séances, and offers private psychic readings, making a fresh start after his abilities cost him his lover and his job as a folklore professor. Jaded cop Vic D’Amato saw something supernatural he couldn’t explain during a shootout several years ago in Pittsburgh and relocated to Myrtle Beach to leave the past behind, still skeptical about the paranormal. But when the search for a serial killer hits a dead end, Vic battles his skepticism to ask Simon for help. As the body count rises, Simon’s involvement makes him a target, and a suspect. But Simon can’t say no, even if it costs him his life and heart.

How was it?

I’ve reread, actually relistened, this story many times, sometimes with the intention of writing a review of it but often I just jump to the following entry and next and so on, the review getting put on the back burner.

Unlike Witchbane, which has a road trip aspect to it in the same vein as Supernatural or even the short-lived TV series Constantine, Badlands is set in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Vic D’Amato, a cop for MBPD is at a dead end investigating a string of murders and seeks, almost flippantly the help of Simon Kincaide a real psychic medium. The investigation will lead him into the dangerous world of dark magic and vengeful spirits, a world he’s skeptical about.

I Like the main characters, Vic and Simon, a bit more than this particular story, because they’re both weirdly linked to the paranormal, one a non-believer haunted by what he’s seen but couldn’t explain, and the other a believer who’s been cast out for it. So this pairing is almost an opposites attract one but not really. The attraction is instantaneous but not rushed, they both see the potential of a relationship but their lifestyles might not match as much as they’d like to. The chemistry is there though, and it’s felt.

The story and the investigation that comes with it are interesting enough while you’re in it but given how many times I’ve read this book I always seem to forget the details of the case. The mystery is not compelling enough and I don’t think that it’s supposed to be. The novel is introducing Vic and Simon, the latter of which is “the guy in the chair,” or “the man with the information” for  Seth and Evan in Witchbane, Erik and Ben in Treasure Trails, and other hunters mentioned in both book series. The focus is on them falling for each other and the type of investigation they can be dragged into in the future.

There barebones approach to the paranormal in this book, by that I mean if it weren’t for Simon’s knowledge of folklore and certain rituals some of it might have seemed a little weird but innocuous to the untrained eye. The innocuous nature of these rituals makes it plausible to deny the paranormal activities going on and the author uses that very well. The non-believers, mostly, don’t seem like blind idiots but uninformed people that could be convinced.

Badlands is a rich urban fantasy with well-crafted paranormal elements, a nice mystical atmosphere, but mostly engaging characters.

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