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Monday, July 13, 2020

Excerpt: Spells for the Dead (A Soulwood Novel Book 5) by Faith Hunter + giveaway

Spells for the Dead (A Soulwood Novel Book 5)
by Faith Hunter
July 28, 2020
Ace
Nell Ingram faces a dark craft known as death magic in the newest pulse-pounding paranormal procedural in the New York Times bestselling Soulwood series.

Nell Ingram is a rookie PsyLed agent, using the powers she can channel from deep within the earth to solve paranormal crimes. Together with her team, she's taken on the darkest magic and the direst foes. But she'll need to tap into every ounce of power she has for her newest case.

Nell is called to the Tennessee mansion of a country music star and finds a disturbing scene—dead bodies rapidly decaying before everyone's eyes. The witch on her team, T. Laine, knows this can only be one thing: death magic, a rare type of craft used to steal life forces. PsyLed needs to find this lethal killer fast. But when a paranormal-hating FBI agent tries to derail the investigation, they find themselves under attack from all sides.

EXCERPT FOURTEEN
The Nashville witch coven finally showed up, two cars and a van pulling a cargo trailer down the road. The trailer was the portable null room, which the LEOs, the paramedics, and the remaining human victims on-site needed badly. T. Laine had to request a police escort to get the witches onto the grounds, but their faces were apparently known to the locals because their movements were followed by a Primitive Baptist preacher with a bullhorn.

The preacher seemed to feel he had a right to give everyone migraines while he assigned every soul but his own to hell. He was stopped at the entrance to the drive and turned back, but even so, things weren’t copacetic with the witches, and the media drones were making sure everything went out to the public.

I watched as they pulled up, parked in the middle of the driveway, got out, and—in unison—slammed their vehicle doors. They were all wearing long black skirts and black shirts, like tropes out of a novel about witches. There wasn’t a smile in play as they spread out in a semicircle across the lawn, seven of them, a good number for a coven. They approached the house and the quarantine tents like hunters flushing game. They seemed to have a collective mad on, their eyes taking in everything from the tents to the victims in the unis to the law enforcement types, who were watching them back with penetrating curiosity and a measure of hostility.

I moved closer to get a better view and ended up near Officer Alvin Hembest, who stood with one hand on the butt of his service weapon. It wasn’t a very calming stance, and it was echoed by the other LEOs. Putnam County and the surrounding environs appeared unwelcoming to the witches who’d come to save them.

When the witches stopped, every eye was on them and the officers were silent, watchful. The witch in the middle was a short woman with shoulders like a linebacker. She was clearly the leader and she raised her voice, shouting, “Why should we help you, when you took one of ours into custody.”

“One of yours is in custody?” T. Laine asked, her tone practical and her volume moderated. Though she surely knew the answer to her own question.

“Catriona Doyle,” the leader said. “The FBI took her into custody as a person of interest and they won’t let us see her. The agent sent social services to pick up her kid. At school. Her child has been remanded into the system instead of to her sister or to one of us.”

“The child’s other parent?” T. Laine asked.




About the Author:
Gwen Hunter
Faith Hunter is the award-winning New York Times and USAToday bestselling author of the Jane Yellowrock, Soulwood, Rogue Mage, and Junkyard Cats series. In addition, she has edited several anthologies and co-authored the Rogue Mage RPG. She is the coauthor and author of 16 thrillers under pen names Gary Hunter and Gwen Hunter. Altogether she has 40+ books and dozens of short stories in print and is juggling multiple projects.

She sold her first book in 1989 and hasn’t stopped writing since.

Faith collects orchids and animal skulls, loves thunderstorms, and writes. She likes to cook soup, bake bread, garden, and kayak Class II & III whitewater rivers. She edits the occasional anthology and drinks a lot of tea. Some days she’s a lady. Some days she ain't.





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18 comments:

  1. I haven't read any of Faith's books yet. Love the bracelets.

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  2. Congratulations on your new release and thanks for sharing your great book.

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  3. I haven't read this one yet. Just started the Jane Yellowrock series and can't wait to get to this series.

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  4. I've been a fan of Faith's books from day one. I forcefully encourage my local library to order them as they come on the market.

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  5. I've read all her Soulwood and her Skinwalker books. I think she does a good
    job of making the tree a truly creepy character in her series.

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  6. The vampire tree is scary and them some -- even ate a tractor.

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  7. I love the Soulwood series! The vampire truly scares the bleep out of me.

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  8. Sounds like a great book.. I haven't read any of Faith's books yet

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  9. I haven't read any of Faith's books yet but they sound great.

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  10. I’m a newbie but I love the covers! Thanks for the giveaway.

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  11. I haven't read any of them, yet.

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  12. I haven't gotten into Soulwood yet, but it sounds like the "vampire tree" is scary.

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  13. I have read all of Faith's books, and I can't wait for this new one!!

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  14. New to me author (and I can't believe I didn't know her!!!) and I know how my weekend will go now!!

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  15. I haven't read any of the Soulwood series yet. The tree is intriguing.

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  16. This is the first time I have encountered the Soulwood series.

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