Ghostkiller

by Marc Vun Kannon

John Smith rescues the dead, saving them from an eternity as powerless shades. He kills ghosts, adding their life force to his own meager supply, and sends the naked souls on to where they should have gone in the first place. He is the first of his kind, the oldest, the best, but that comes with a price. He has no other family, no other friends. He’s done a lot but forgotten more, and life has a way of reminding him he hasn’t seen it all.
Like today. A friend murdered, his ghost is haunting John and weakening rapidly. To save the ghost John needs the body, which is prowling around the city somewhere, mindlessly killing every living thing it touches, and even more toxic to Ghostkillers. A virus waiting to spread.
Fortunately John has human allies to capture the body, risking their lives so he doesn’t have to risk his soul. He has enough to deal with, when a medium discovers the presence of an evil spirit at the crime scene, and he follows that lead into disaster, as the spirit and the body are in the same place. But his allies have tracked the body, and they corner the body, just in time to…
…Watch it become possessed by the evil spirit, with powers of pain to go with the body’s deadly touch?
…Hear it grind out the word ‘kill’ while staring at John Smith?
…Know to the bottom of their souls that John will be only the first to be damned?
Definitely not one of his better days.

259 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 6, 2017

About the author

I was attacked by my first story in my early 30's, and it hasn't let me go yet. The more I write the bigger it gets. I am occasionally let out to write other stories, however. For anything like detail I'd suggest checking out my Bio on my website. I didn't write it, though.

Reviews

[Paul Calhoun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very "New York" style of urban fantasy. I don't even know how to describe it; only that for the last few years, all the authors out of the metro area have started sounding similar when writing urban fantasy or even horror. That aside, I enjoyed this book and enjoyed it more the longer I read it. The abilities of each group were explained and then used to solve the central conflict, one which seemed to suddenly leap forward near the end. That is, it was a lot of zombie hunting right until the last couple chapters, and everything started moving fast.

John Smith was a cipher from end to end. I think this worked well in keeping the mystery going because not only was the main plot a mystery, so was the main character. Then again, we never really learn much about any of the characters. They come, they do their bit, and they either keep doing it or disappear. We understand as much about them as we need to and then move on.

That makes this a plot driven story with some good character development, but it was a little too focused for my taste. I enjoy Mr. Vun Kannon best when he lingers to explore the scenery a bit, and since this book ends with the near-apocalyptic obliteration of the setting to replace it with a different one, I wonder if we'll ever really see much of how this world operated.

All in all, I'd certainly recommend this book to its target audience, but I think it missed me slightly. I'm beginning to think that asking book sellers at cons to give me a book with a "well defined magical system" isn't the right approach!

[Kassandra Combest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unexpected

The story starts with a name and doesn't let go. I loved the premise, it was so innovative and different. Well executed. I definitely recommend