Black Dust Mambo

Today's post is on 'Black Dust Mambo' by Adrain Phoenix. It is published by Pocket Books which is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. It is 368 pages long. The intended reader is an adult who likes urban fantasy. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- "There will be times, girl, when all your magic ain't going to be enough, times it will seem to dry up like mud under the noonday sun, or even make matters worse...".
Kallie Riviere, a fiery Cajun hoodoo apprentice with a talent for trouble, finds herself smack-dab in the middle of one of those times her mentor warned her about when she visits New Orleans to attend the Hecatean Alliance's annual carnival: her hard-bodied conjurer hookup ends up dead in her blood-drenched bed. And he was killed by something that Kallie would never dream of touching- the darkest of dark juju, soul-eating juju- a black dust hex that may have been meant to kill her.
Now Kallie has to use every bit of hoodoo knowledge and bayou-bred mojo she possesses to clear her own name and find the killer- even as that dark sorcerer hunts Kallie and her friends. But Kallie's search for the truth soon leads her in a direction she never anticipated- back home to Bayou Cypres Noir, and to Gabrielle LaRue, Kallie's aunt, protector, and hoodoo mentor... who is looking more and more like she just might be the one who wants Kallie dead.

Review- I really enjoyed this book. The characters were fun and interesting. Phoenix starts the book with a bang and she carries it all the through the rest of the tale. It is the first in a new series. Kallie is the one who we mainly follow with the tale, she is very self-aware and thinks about her actions during the story. I like that in my main characters. For example she thinks about the fact that she is attracted to Layne when she had just been with his best friend, who died in her place at the beginning of the story. Kallie thinks about what is going on around her. Phoenix also makes good use of time in her tale. The whole thing takes place in about twelfth hours. The reader feels the time passing slowly or at least I was aware of how much time had passed from the beginning of the story to the end. That I think goes back to Kallie's awareness in the story because she thinks about things. For a character who gets in about seven fights over the course of the book she is very introspective. The story is in third person and we even get to spend time in the villain heads. The why of the villain's reason is good but do not trust it there is more going here than meets the eye. Even the villain does not know everything that they think they do. The last twist is very good. It makes all the actions of the villain even more tragic than more.

I give this a solid Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this book with my own money.