Title: Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper
Author/Publisher: JL Bryan
Pages: 220 pp
Price: $8.99 (paperback) / $0.00 (ebook)
Savannah is a haunted city. Whether the ghosts are simply telekinetic tricksters or dangerous, violent poltergeists, there is only one organization which can help: Eckhart Investigations. One retired police officer, now confined to a wheelchair (Eckhart); one traumatized skeptic with a solid background in science and engineering (Ellie); and one bubbly trust fund baby with a tendency to get in over her head (Stacey). Add one psychic who can’t tune out the dead all around us (Jacob), and the team is complete.
Good thing, too, because their latest case is a doozy. The long abandoned Marsh mansion is being converted into a bed-and-breakfast. Unfortunately, the ghosts who live there have other ideas. When one particularly angry spirit begins to haunt the family’s young daughter, Ellie and Stacey set out to capture and dispose of her. They succeed … and then things get really bad ….
I downloaded Ellie Jordan after it was recommended by Jordan L Hawk, one of my favorite paranormal romance/urban fantasy authors. It was free, so I figured why not? I admit that I did not expect much going in. I was just looking for some quick, light entertainment.
I had not expected Ellie Jordan to be quite so much fun. Think of the book (and the series as a whole) as sort of a mash-up of Ghostbusters and Buffy: no vampires or werewolves, but the ghosts are plenty nasty, and it takes real girl power to bring them down.
The characters are incredibly engaging. Too often in urban fantasy stories, the badass female protagonist is so badass that she is completely unlikeable and completely unrelateable. Ellie does not have that problem. She is a deeply sympathetic protagonist, with a tragic past, and the gumption to make sure that no one else has to go through what she did. She is backed up by the adventuresome Stacey: bubbly at first, she matures as she begins to understand just how dangerous it can be to work as a ghost trapper. Then there is old Eckhart, still trying to protect Ellie as he has since she was a child; and poor Jacob, one of only a handful of survivors of a plane crash who is now constantly haunted by the dead.
Speaking of the dead … creepy. Very creepy. We’re not talking about the ghost of your grandmother trying to tell you where she hid the recipe for her famous apple cobbler. No, we’re talking the deranged spirit of a heroin addict with needles sticking out of him in all directions; a hollow-eyed prostitute still seeking justice for a murdered friend; the mad spirits of patients tortured at an insane asylum; and so many more.
While Ellie Jordan is not explicitly Pagan or polytheist (I would classify it as vaguely generic Christian), it does include many elements which will appeal to such an audience: namely, everything above. Plus, some cool rituals, some cool gadgets, and some cool cemeteries.
Check out the first book, then go download the rest. Then spread the word.