In Stacia Kane's "Downside Ghosts" series we have an emotionally intense urban fantasy with strong plot arcs, well developed characters, and solid world building. In Chasing Magic this series continues to go from strength to strength as the development of plot and characters takes new highs, new lows, and new twists.

The basic story, if you are just stumbling into this world, is about Chess, junkie ghost hunter, with serious mental health issues caused by a truly horrifying past (that is alluded to or glossed over, but never gone into in depth). She's not what you'd normally expect to see as the heroine of a story, there is nothing shiny and happy about Chess, there's no sudden redemption and “all’s well”; but she is an amazingly strong character, even if it's only the reader (along with Terrible and Lex) that can see it.

If this is the first in the series you've read, it can be read as a standalone, but you will have missed the character development and potentially not understand the significance of some of the relationships...and you'll find this review is about to contain spoilers.

The body count in Downside is always high, but it's HUGE in
Chasing Magic, with another maniac on the loose, bad drugs, and people being chopped to pieces. If this wasn't enough fun, the man Chess loves, the second in charge in the gang that rules her part of town, Terrible, has someone trying to kill him. Someone sent by Lex, leader of the rival gang in Downside, who just happens to be Chess' friend, drug dealer, and ex lover. To add just one more spanner in the works, Elder Griffith, Chess' boss and mentor, is getting married, and it’s time for her hero to meet her love. Considering the laws Chess has broken for Terrible, and who Terrible is, this may not go as well as could be.

One of the really interesting things about the world building of Stacia Kane is just how complete it is, and one of the areas that highlight this is in the Downside dialogue.

"Lex fuckin bring it me, only he left a minute past. Guessin he wanting to find a fuckin place to get him watch on, also"

It makes it easy to switch from the nice, respectable world of the church (or narrative) to the rough and ready world full of gangsters, crime and drugs in Downside.

My only real issue with this story was with Chess' emotional journey. This is one pretty messed up lady, with new depths of self doubt, self loathing and self sabotage, but I found the inner monologue a little too much in this story, a little too circular. We had a lot of revelations and breakthrough in the previous story, and although it's not unexpected for Chess to go back to the same old Chess, the constant tirade of self hate became a little too much at times, and I found myself skimming through it.

Otherwise the story is a great urban fantasy, with fast paced action blended with soul searching, lots of twists, and really interesting characters. I wouldn't say this is the best in the series, but it's possibly the most emotionally intense as far as Chess' relationships go.

Overall, I still love this series, and each time I start a new downside ghosts book I wonder why it languished on the TBR pile for even a moment.