Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Marti

Paranormal Mystery/Urban Fantasy

From Goodreads: 

Cassidy Kincaide owns Trifles & Folly, an antique/curio store and high-end pawn shop in Charleston, South Carolina that is more than what it seems. Dangerous magical and supernatural items sometimes find their way into mortal hands or onto the market, and Cassidy is part of a shadowy Alliance of mortals and mages whose job it is to take those deadly curiosities out of circulation.

Welcome to Trifles & Folly, an antique and curio shop with a dark secret. Proprietor Cassidy Kincaide continues a family tradition begun in 1670—acquiring and neutralizing dangerous supernatural items. It’s the perfect job for Cassidy, whose psychic gift lets her touch an object and know its history. Together with her business partner Sorren, a 500 year-old vampire and former jewel thief, Cassidy makes it her business to get infernal objects off the market. When mundane antiques suddenly become magically malicious, it’s time for Cassidy and Sorren to get rid of these Deadly Curiosities before the bodies start piling up.

If you read Gail’s post on “The Haunting of Charleston: Setting Deadly Curiosities In The Real World” you already know how much research went into getting the setting just right in Deadly Curiosities.  That same attention to detail went into developing the characters and leaving hints about the back-story.  It just goes to follow that the plot would be as finely tuned. 

Deadly Curiosities is a paranormal mystery/urban fantasy and that is its only focus.  (Unlike many paranormals today there is no romance.)   I found that really refreshing. Deadly Curiosities is full of tension, danger and unusual magical properties as well as a 500 year old vampire. There is a lot of interaction between the characters as they work to find the cause of all of the malicious magic coming from objects that were not magical before and that keeps the story moving. The nature of the magic means that some of the scenes were very gruesome.  In spite of that the book stayed an enjoyable read. 

You could tell the characters had a history.  They each had their place on the team and knew they could rely on each other.  Some of that history is implied leaving only hints about some of the back-story.  Since this is book one in a new series there is still a lot left to learn about Trifles & Folly, the antique/curio store at the heart of Deadly Curiosities, and about the three main characters, Cassidy, Sorren, and Teag.  There is also a lot more to learn about the very interesting side characters that add depth to the story.  Deadly Curiosities has just the right blend of paranormal and mystery and a great start to a new series.

Solaris published DeadlyCuriosities by Gail Z. Martin in 2014.

I received an ARC of Deadly Curiosities from Netgalley.