Review of The Witchstone

Blurb: Meet Laszlo, eight-hundred-year-old demon and Hell’s least productive Curse Keeper. From his office beneath Midtown, he oversees the Drakeford Curse, which involves a pathetic family upstate and a mysterious black stone. It’s a sexy enough assignment—colonial origins, mutating victims, et cetera—but Laszlo has no interest in maximizing the curse’s potential; he’d rather sunbathe in Ibiza, quaff martinis, and hustle the hustlers on Manhattan’s subway. Unfortunately, his division has new management, and Laszlo’s ratings are so abysmal that he’s given six days to shape up or he’ll be melted down and returned to the Primordial Ooze.

Meet Maggie Drakeford, nineteen-year-old Curse Bearer. All she’s ever known is the dreary corner of the Catskills where the Drakeford Curse has devoured her father’s humanity and is rapidly laying claim to her own. The future looks hopeless, until Laszlo appears at the Drakeford farmhouse one October night and informs them that they have six days—and six days only—to break the spell before it becomes permanent. Can Maggie trust the glib and handsome Laszlo? Of course not. But she also can’t pass up an opportunity to save her family, even if it means having a demon as a guide ...

Thus begins a breakneck international adventure that takes our unlikely duo from a hot dog stand in Central Park to the mountains of Liechtenstein, a five-star hotel in Zurich, and even the time-traveling vault of a demonic crime boss. As the clock ticks down, tough-as-nails Maggie and conniving Laszlo will uncover a secret so profound that what began as a farcical quest to break a curse will eventually threaten the very Lords of Hell.

Review: The Drakeford Curse has tortured the Drakeford family for several generations. Their Curse Keeper, Laszlo is a lazy demon who only wants to luxuriate in the finer things in life. So when a new manager demands he crank up hope to lead to more misery, Laszlo has no choice. It's do or die. He sweeps away nineteen-year-old Maggie Drakeford and her little brother Lump stows away as they go across the ocean to gather items to break the curse. Maggie is determined to save her family and herself from the curse, and Laszlo is determined not to die. It's a whirlwind adventure, and not everyone wants them to succeed.

This is a fantastic standalone urban fantasy that made me laugh out loud. The action is nonstop and the characters fun and quirky. Maggie and Lump are two sheltered curse bearers who are more than just backwoods hicks. Their curse and its lore is fascinating, and it would be awesome to learn even more about their family history, but this story is theirs. Along with Laszlo, of course. He's lazy and hedonistic, but there's always something cooking in his head, and he surprised me a lot. He's a low level demon but with a noble father. He doesn't have lots of power, but he was clever. I loved all the side characters too, especially Signora and Clarence.

It was a roller coaster of a quest which takes the characters to several locations. Most of them dangerous! You could tell the author writes great quest fantasy. This is his first book for adults, and I really hope he writes more.

You can find Henry H. Neff on his site and buy the book here.

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On a more personal note, we lost our sweet cat, Thunder this past week. He had aggressive stomach cancer, and he was taken from us too soon. He was the best cat.

R.I.P. Thunder