White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton

Publication Date: October 13, 2020

Summary from Goodreads:

Adam Binder hasn’t spoken to his brother in years, not since Bobby had him committed to a psych ward for hearing voices. When a murderous spirit possesses Bobby’s wife and disrupts the perfect life he’s built away from Oklahoma, he’s forced to ask for his little brother’s help. Adam is happy to escape the trailer park and get the chance to say I told you so, but he arrives in Denver to find the local magicians dead.

It isn’t long before Adam is the spirit’s next target. To survive the confrontation, he’ll have to risk bargaining with powers he’d rather avoid, including his first love, the elf who broke his heart.

The Binder brothers don’t realize that they’re unwitting pawns in a game played by immortals. Death herself wants the spirit’s head, and she’s willing to destroy their family to reap it.

Confession:

My love of Urban Fantasy continues to be validated with every book I read. This wonderful debut has a lot going for it and I am so glad that I picked it up. It was a lot of fun, but also had just the right amount of creepiness and terror that I enjoy in my urban fantasies.

“Guthrie was a good place to be from, but it wasn’t a great place to live, not when you were like Adam, in all the ways Adam was like Adam.“

Adam is a wonderful character and one I am sure many people will be able to relate to. He comes from a hard working yet poor background. He also has a magical talent that allows him to see what others can’t. Which led his brother and mother to have him committed at a young age. Something that shaped what he has become but also at times makes him second guess himself and his decisions. It also creates a lot of strife between him and his family, and it is a struggle for him to help them even though he knows that there is more than just his family at stake.

“People aren’t less just because they don’t live the way you do.”

“I didn’t say that,” Robert said.

“You think it,” Adam said. “You think we’re all trash because we don’t have nice cars and ugly houses. Life isn’t just about money.”

Most of the book is narrated by Adam but there are quite a few that are narrated by Robert, his brother. Bobby is almost the complete opposite of Adam. He worked really hard to get himself out of his family’s situation. He became a doctor and is well respected in his community. But this respectability came with a cost that I am not sure Bobby really sees, until the end of the story. It was hard to like Bobby, but it was easy to understand why he went the way he did, even at the cost of his family.

There is a little bit of a light romance in this story, almost a love triangle too. Adam falls for a young police officer, Vic, who’s life he saved when Vic takes a bullet meant for him. Adam’s old flame, the elf he loved when he was a teen shows up eventually too, which stirs up so many emotions for Adam. But even though love triangles aren’t really my thing, this one doesn’t overpower the story and even becomes important to the outcome at one point.

“You’re a sword-wielding being of immense power, an immortal. And you’re teasing me.”

“Yes I am, ” she said. “What use would I have for a mortal soul?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

“I’m not some sort of petty hoarder, ” she said. “Not like dragons.”

There are fae and lots of other supernatural creatures in this story. Most are benevolent or at least keep to themselves. Others are quite cruel and are willing to kill mortals to get what they want. The world that Adam sees when he spirit walks is also very interesting. Like ours, but not and of course at time very dangerous.

I really did enjoy this book and hope to see more from this author and this series sometime in the near future. If you like urban fantasy you really should give this one a chance. You won’t be disappointed.