I don’t remember how I first heard about Stephen Blackmoore’s Eric Carter series. There’s a good chance it was via another writer’s social media, which… well, sometimes Twitter isn’t a dumpster fire, which is why I still occasionally hang out there. Regardless, once the keyword is necromancer, you have my attention.

With the release of book four, Fire Season (Daw, April 2019), Blackmoore has cemented Carter’s place in the pantheon of stuff urban fantasy fans should be shoving in their eyeballs, but for some reason I can’t comprehend, far too few of my fellow UF fans have discovered this series. I’m going to do some shouting to see if I can’t change that.

This being a family-friendly site, a caveat: these books are for the parental echelons of said. Did I mention the necromancy? It’s not the sanitary, kiss-from-a-prince kind. The magic is not finger sparkles, the violence is not honorable dueling, nor the sex a chaste kiss before the lights go out. Eric Carter stomps through the ugly bits of LA, the cartel infested parts of Mexico, and Míctlan, which is not a nice underworld. He isn’t there for fun and he isn’t really happy about it. Blackmoore’s books are a sublimely horror-tinged mix of LA noir, murder mystery, ghost story, and the mythology they tried to sanitize with musical numbers when we were kids.

Here’s why you should be spending your very precious “free” time on them:

Eric and I have been together for a while now (since 2013’s Dead Things, in fact). I’ve invested a lot of hours in our relationship, which is saying something as a mom of two, nurse, writer, and cosplayer. What’s particularly interesting about this bookish relationship is that Eric isn’t necessarily someone I’d want to hang out with in real life. He’s a jerk a great majority of the time and his head is a dark place (so dark, Blackmoore recently commented on Twitter, he’s not sure how much longer he wants to live there).

I don’t need all of my IRL friends to be Steve Rogers or Takashi Shirogane (in fact, I wouldn’t want them to be because then I’d never get into any trouble), but I do appreciate it when the people around me occasionally consider whether or not I’ll be caught in vicious magical crossfire when they make a decision. Does Eric Carter end up doing the right thing most of the time? Ultimately, yes, but not until the situation is so snarled and the bodies piled so high he sort of has to claim responsibility. Eric Carter isn’t evil but, at the same time, he doesn’t really have any interest in redemption. He wants to survive. There are a few people he’d like to survive with him.

That, my friends, is compelling as hell.

Why?

As a character driver reader and writer, I’m always fascinated by motivations, and it’s a bold step for a writer to base a series on a character who is so openly flawed. A lot of readers are here for the redemption arc and, when they don’t get it, are disappointed. Take a look at the response of the majority to those brave few on social media asking why Space Nazi Kylo Ren should have the chance to make amends for murdering millions of people – folks love a villain washed clean.

But here’s the thing: most people, in the real world, are selfish. Very few will do the right thing without some external motivation, and the reason readers aren’t as keen on those characters is, perhaps, they remind them to much of themselves. Which is another reason I adore the Eric Carter series so much: Blackmoore has created an extraordinary world in which he has placed a character who is, magical abilities aside, an entirely normal human being who acts like a normal human being.

He isn’t a knight in shining armor. He isn’t a super villain. Sure, he can talk to the dead and has magical tattoos but beyond all of that, he’s just some guy, trying to live his life, the same as everyone else, trying to stay afloat as everything crumbles around him with no idea what the hell he’s supposed to do about it. He doesn’t have a higher purpose. He doesn’t have a geas. No great destiny written in the starts. Born screaming and will probably die screaming like the rest of us, trying to get five seconds to take a nap in between.

But, Shiri, what are the books about?

Calm down, I’m getting there.

Dead Things (2013): Eric Carter has made a career of putting troubled spirits to rest. He’s made a good living as a necromancer since leaving LA 15 years ago and has no intention of going back. Until his sister is murdered.

Could have been gangsters. The ghost of the mage he killed the night he left town. Or, it could have been Santa Muerte herself.

Carter plans to find out. Unless he ends up a ghost first.

Broken Souls (2014): The investigation into his sister’s death didn’t go so well. Eric’s best friend is now dead as well and he’s trapped in a marriage he definitely didn’t want. In the midst of what may be attempts at communication from the ghost of his dead friend, and what may be a psychotic break, Eric must defeat an enemy who, quite literally, wants to wear his skin.

Hungry Ghosts (2017): A couple of gods are each trying to convince Eric to assassinate the other. All while he’s slowly swapping places with one of them, turning to jade as he takes the place of Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of the Aztec dead. Of course, before he can get to either, or both of them, he’ll have to face his own sins…

Fire Season (2019): LA is burning and, like some many things, it’s Eric Carter’s fault. Worse yet, he’s being framed for things that aren’t, attracting the attention of some very powerful mages who are very happy to murder first and verify with his ghost later. Oh, and the cartel assassin who likes to play with the fire of the gods…

Convinced yet? Of course you are.

Go read. You know. In your spare time between your visit to the Church of Santa Muerte and the seance and the street battle with Quetzatcoatl.