Unholy Ghosts

In this dark futuristic urban fantasy series launch, Kane (Demon Possessed ) blurs the boundaries between the living and the dead. Chess Putnam works for the world-ruling Church of Real Truth, debunking false claims of hauntings and banishing the occasional real ghost. When a powerful drug dealer calls on her services to erase her debt to him, Chess finds herself investigating an abandoned airfield, a horrible human sacrifice, an ominous apparition, and a conspiracy against the church itself. Making matters worse are her persistent drug habit, a cursed unhealing wound, and her fondness for extremely dangerous men. What starts out as a promising concept soon deteriorates into a murky mess of ambiguous characters and grim dangers. Chess is too broken to be sympathetic and too stoned to be coherent, and though it's atmospheric and well written, her story simply lacks heart. (June)