Ricky Church reviews Lipstick Voodoo: A Kincaid Strange Novel…
Mystery meets supernatural in Kristi Charish’s Lipstick Voodoo, the second installment of her series that follows voodoo practitioner and sometimes paranormal investigator Kincaid Strange. Charish writes a compelling tale that blends together supernatural and horror elements with a mysterious series of murders that involve her best friend, who just happens to be a ghost. The characters are interesting, narrative moves along at a nice pace and Charish’s prose and balance of mystery and horror make the book well worth the read.
The Kincaid Strange series imagines a world where the living and the dead co-exist. Ghost, zombies, ghouls and other supernatural beings are well-known to the living with voodoo practitioners and people familiar in the occult well-employed. When Kincaid Strange is asked to help out on a decades old cold-case that is somehow tied to her friend Nathan Cade, the ghost of a deceased rock star who is not only her roommate, but walking around in a zombified body, she takes the opportunity to look into it and mend some fences with the Seattle police department. It’s not long after, though, that people from Nathan’s past begin turning up dead with signs pointing to a dangerous and rare supernatural entity. With time running out to solve the murders and free Nathan’s ghost from the zombie body, all the while keeping her angry mentor in sorcery at bay, Kincaid has a lot to deal with.
It sounds like a lot going on, but Charish manages to bring all the plot threads together in an intriguing way. It helps that though this is the second book in the series, Charish is quick to catch up any new readers on events, characters and jargon from the first book, The Voodoo Murders, without overly complicating the exposition. It is easy to follow and the world Charish presents is an interesting and exciting one as every day people deal with the supernatural on an almost daily basis with certain practices, such as zombie raisings, being explicitly outlawed. There is a attention to detail to the rules of the world while still giving freedom to new supernatural aspects Kincaid and others don’t know about.
Kincaid is a fairly interesting protagonist. Her demeanour gives off a mostly laid-back, down to earth and DGAF vibe, especially when it comes to dealing with sleazy lawyers or crooked cops. Underneath her veneer, though, she’s dealing with a lot after some trauma from he first book and new problems brewing as a result of the new case. The book follows her viewpoint for the duration of the novel and Charish does well in making Kincaid a multifaceted character. She’s intelligent, witty, funny, endearing and flawed, making her easy to root for as the trouble keeps piling up.
The supporting characters are all good additions and fleshed out as well. Nate’s characteristics, namely his reckless behaviour, are explored fully here and examines his behaviour in the final years of his life compared to the present. Like Kincaid, he’s also a pretty witty character and provides several moments of comic relief, but is also deeply flawed and carries the baggage of his old life around like a lead balloon. Even Kincaid’s ghostly mentor Gideon gets a little development as something more than just a deceitful and angry ghost by showing he and Kincaid may share more similarities than she’d like to admit. The only character who doesn’t feel quite as fleshed out is Aaron, Kincaid’s ex-boyfriend and the cop assigned to the cold case. He falls into the trope of an ex who is committed to the job and not much else, though he and Kincaid still share a somewhat cordial friendship despite their differing views, both professionally and personally.
Readers should find the pacing quite good as the mystery proves to be a nice page-turner and fairly quick read. With the different plots, Charish knows when to pul back from one and switch to the other, keeping the book constantly fresh and moving with new pieces of information revealed in nearly every chapter. Though a couple chapters may drag on a little too long with its exposition, Charish still writes them well in a way that doesn’t let the exposition ruin the flow of the story. Most of the plots converge together by the conclusion, making nearly all of it worthwhile and satisfying. Another aspect that elevates it is how Charish toes the line between a young adult and adult novel with the use of swearing and violence. It’s just over the line of a YA novel, especially in the descriptions of the violence and some of the story’s themes, but its still just enough that its shouldn’t be too much for a YA reader.
Lipstick Voodoo is an entertaining and engrossing novel that blends together the mystery and supernatural genres nicely. It is easy for any new reader to jump into and any fans of the first novel will enjoy the continuation of Kincaid’s story. The characters are compelling in how the book examines their flaws and Charish’ prose is well suited for the task. Any readers looking for a new spin on a mystery or paranormal novel should enjoy Kincaid’s latest investigation and all the complications that arise in her life.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church
