Justin GustainisCritiques

This one got quietly put aside. I guess the goal is for the protagonist to come across as a just regular guy doing an irregular job. Unfortunately for me, the character just comes across as 2 dimensional and none too clever. The author spends a lot of time explaining how the world works, but the protagonist doesn't seem to have the kind of savvy that a veteran police officer working a supernatural crime squad would have picked up just to survive. I lost interest.

Enjoyable and well written. The ending is a "whiskey tango foxtrot" ending, but OK.

I like Stan Markowski, he's honest and a hard-a**, but growing on me.

Evil running amok, killing little kids for their organs, a Black Magician who comes across as a spoiled little boy who did not get his way and several people intent on stopping the coming of, well, the END. Though Gustainis writes a fairly good story, his dialogue can be quite clunky and awkward at times and I think he tries too hard to explain stuff that should be obvious to the reader. Still, I enjoyed this book.

This is the name dropping book and I found myself wondering just how close to copyright you can skim before tipping over the edge ...

~The characters go to Chicago chasing leads down and with the intent to speak with Harry "Chicago's resident wizard" Dresden. They also visit Mac's Bar. While in Chicago, Morris tries to get in touch with Carl Kolchak but Tony is less than cooperative. LOL

~Hannah Widmark, the woman Morris hires to watch his and Libby Chastain's backs, was trained to shoot Colt .45s by a guy named Cranston ... cue eerie laugh.

~Even the X-Files gets named checked!

I'm not to sure who Frank in the text is, or what the whole fist shake he shares with Hannah is, though it could be just Gustainis' own addition to his universe. I kind of wonder if he wasn't trying for a reference to Supernatural.

I'm beginning to think there ought to to be a convention of wizards, magic workers, monster hunters etc. including Harry, Alex Verus, Quincy Morris & Libby Chastain, Peter Grant, the Winchesters ...

The narrator is a little uneven in his voices, sometimes allowing one voice to bleed into another character. Still, a fun (re)read as usual.

I'm not a big fan of short story collections, since one story out of the whole pack might appeal or stick in the mind after being read, while the others are over and easily forgotten. I find that, even though I read the whole collection, the only which will actually stick with me will most likely be the Tony Foster story "See Me" by Tanya Huff and that has more to do with the fact he's one of my favorite characters from her books. The Nightside story "The Spirit of the Thing" by Simon Green might actually stick too, since I've actually read a couple of those books.

The rest of the short stories (14 in all) in this collection are, like the two mentioned above, based in series which I haven't read, or even, in some cases, never encountered before even in just popping around looking for new urban fantasy books to read. Not that this is a bad thing. I might hunt down a book in the Jill Kismet series ([b:Night Shift|2572997|Night Shift (Jill Kismet, #1)|Lilith Saintcrow|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388187242s/2572997.jpg|2584556]) by Lillith Saintcrow and I enjoyed the short story about Kate Connor- The Demon Hunting Soccer Mom - well, actually more her daughter's adventure than Kate's - so it's a maybe (if I can get around the paranormal romance aspect of these books; we'll see). On the other hand, I totally passed up on the story "Hell Bound" a Hell on Earth short by Jackie Kessler. Succubi have never appealed and the scan I did of the story made it clear that I really would not ejoy reading it.

I was seriously disappointed in the last story in the collection, by Rachel Caine "Running Wild" (Outcast Season). Not because it is a bad story, but because, while it's set on a trail on Sandia* Peak (the mountain which borders Albuquerque to the east), we get absolutely no sense of place or what the city looks like from the side of the crest. While I understand Caine wanting to focus on the needs of her short story (mainly telling us about the darkness residing in Mother Earth), she just says the story is set in Albuquerque. That's it, nothing else. She has the character Cassius climb up the side of the mountain and sit and stare down the mountain, but it's like a blank canvas she's looking at, painting her thoughts about the humans who live below the mountain. These photos tell you better about the description Caine failed to even try to convey. Maybe it was too much to tell in such a short story?
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*Sandia is the Spanish word for watermelon. Quite appropriate as you'll see in the photos.

Stan Markowski is a detective in the Occult Crimes Investigation Unit in Scranton, PA. Though he doesn't think much of vampires or other paranormal beings, he is gradually coming around now that his partner and daughter are both vampires. His current case centers around the unexplained deaths of a variety of supernaturals including witches and werewolves. The FBI also comes to town with another case: someone is summoning demons and making snuff films and it looks like they are being filmed in Scranton.

As Markowski and his partner investigate they discover that Scranton may be the test site for a future race war pitting humans against supernaturals. There are lots of references to Helter Skelter and Charles Manson. There are defrocked bishops and millionaires with agendas.

This was an interesting combination of genres. It read as a hard-boiled detective story in an alternate present peopled by humans and supernatural beings. Markowski is a smart, competent cop who is eager to get to the bottom of the problem. His partner Karl is a recently-turned vampire and a James Bond fan. His daughter works as a police dispatcher on the night shift, naturally.

Fans of hard-boiled detective stories and urban fantasy will enjoy this series. I'm eager to read about their next case.

I received an ebook copy of this book from the author in exchange for a review.

That being said, this was a great continuation as the third novel in the Occult Crimes Unit series by J. Gustainis, and I find myself wanting more. The world he has created filled with supernaturals of many types, and how it runs seemingly parallel to ours is amazing. I always picture Det. Markowski as a 'Sam Spade' type, with so much dry wit and sarcasm, I find myself chuckling quite a bit throughout the story. If you like urban fantasy and crime stories, you will love this series! I hope to see more in the future!!

I received this copy for free from the author in exchange for review. That being said, why have I not read this author before?!? I was drawn into the story, and found it hard to put down.

Markowski is a Sergeant on the Scranton, N.J., Police force, the Occult Division. In this alternate plane, supernaturals (vampires, werewolves, fairies, wizards, etc.) are common, though society may not embrace them. When the case gets weird, the Occult Division gets called in. This time, it is someone killing off vampires ... and there is something big at stake (pardon the pun).

Gustainis has done a great job in building character and plot in this first installment to the Occult Crimes Unit series. I found myself liking the main characters, with their human failings (love for family, desires to be loved, etc). I am avidly looking forward to reading the next book.

It's no secret that I love urban fantasies. This book was no exception. I really liked the author's storytelling style and I liked the characters. I especially liked that there didn't seem to be a romance brewing between the lead characters. They were genuinely partners, fighting against the forces of evil. If you enjoy darker urban fantasies, then this one might be fore you.

Good anthology of short stories, quick, easy reads that introduce the reader to established characters, to see if you want to continue to follow the character. I enjoyed it and found some characters that I'm going to look into reading more about.

3.5/5 stars. With every book in this series the stakes rise. Not in the old joke about D&D way where suddenly everyone in your group is a god, no, because Stan Markowski is still just Stan, a human cop in a supernatural world. But in the way where the stakes have to do with Stan and his beliefs and actions.

With help from his vampire partner Karl, official department witch Rachel, and with the support of his daughter and department, Stan uncovers a conspiracy that cause him to make a very difficult choice.

[As an aside, in this book Stan meets a tattooed woman who speaks her mind and he thinks she's not the usual representative of a Seven Sisters college. Oh, Stan, how wrong you are.]

(Provided by publisher)½

An Urban Fantasy novel. The world of the supernatural exists semi-peacefully along side the rest of humanity. The Occult Crimes Unit is there to investigate when things aren't so peaceful. This one, someone is using demons to possess one person and torture another to death for snuff films. and it seems they have larger aims than just killing off a few people and make some money from sickos. Markowski and his partner have a lot riding on their abilities to figure out who is responsible before things get out of hand.

Very quick and engaging read that spins far closer to cop-noir than the typical urban fantasy.

It struck me as the cops' end of Law & Order with vampires and assorted horror types...and I could easily see the POV cop played by Jerry Orbach.

Well worth the time to read if you like urban fantasy and police procedurals. No major surprises but a fun melange of elements that make for a fast read.

My name's Markowski. I carry a badge.

As you might expect from the hard-boiled detective novel cover, not to mention his deadpan introduction, Stan Markowski, the hero of Justin Gustainis' Hard Spell, is a Detective Sergeant of the Stranton PD.

Also a crucifix, some wooden stakes, a big vial of holy water, and a 9 mm Beretta loaded with silver bullets.

What makes this such a fun story, however, is the fact that Stan is a Detective Sergeant for the Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit. Part Joe Friday and part Agent Mulder (with a little Gil Grissom mixed in), he's the kind of man who commands immediate respect. Meanwhile, his partner, Karl Renfer (a hotshot cop with James Bond aspirations) makes a perfect foil. Their relationship borders on the clichéd, but that's intentional - the entire book 'borders' on it, but cleverly challenges every cliché it comes across.

This was just a fun story. The narrative style worked perfectly, and the dialogue was consistently strong. It's not often I pay so much attention to dialogue, but this was the kind of book I wished I could 'watch' in a serialized TV format, just so I could hear the sarcasm. The supernatural elements are handled beautifully, coming across as entirely plausible, and not at all comic or surreal. In many ways I was expecting a Men In Black kind of approach, but this is much closer to The Night Stalker - assuming, of course, that the show was filmed a few decades later, uncensored and granted the kind of budget that cable TV can command.

Much to my surprise, this was a story that worked well as both an urban fantasy and as a police procedural. Take away the supernatural elements, and there is still a good detective story here, but it's the mix of the two that make this such a great read. It's not often you come across a group of goblins, addicted to meth, who have to be apprehended for robbery . . . and even less often that you need to dial 666 to summon help from the Sacred Weapons And Tactical (SWAT) unit.

A quick read, this is also a good one - definitely one of the most pleasant surprises I've encountered in a long time. I really hope Justin continues with this world, and gives us more adventures with the Scranton PD.

Stan Markowski is a Detective Sergeant on the Scranton PD's Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit.

This is a mix of a more old-fashioned hard-boiled detective story and the supernatural and overall it works really, really well. This was not a typical campy urban fantasy where hot vampires and werewolves run around saving the day, this is a fairly dark world with series consequences and it takes it's supernatural elements serious.

The characters were a mix of believable and stereotypical hard-boiled cop, more from the 70's than the current times, and for this world it really works. It even seemed to make the running undercurrent of sexism through the story not quite as painful? At least more like it fit so it didn't quite upset me like it normally would.

I feel the author did a great job making the supernatural elements feel...sort of natural, or at least believable and I loved that the setting was not the typical New York or other typical well-known city. Scanton, Pennsylvania makes for a different and therefore potentially more interesting setting.

And I can't forget the S.W.A.T. team, oh my god I loved the S.W.A.T. Team (and the Hell hound, I want a Hell hound for myself) and I so very badly hope they show up in future books. They were a fun tough bunch you could feel the camaraderie and sense of a well functioning team that had been together for a while.

This felt like a believable cop story that just happened to have vampires running through it, and it wasn't campy at all, it takes itself serious and allowed series consequences and difficult decisions that will play out in future books and I am definitely looking forward to the next one.

This book is an interesting collection of stories about the direct/indirect influence of the devil. Some of the stories are quite simple and don't build much "around" the devil rather than just show briefly that he is there/and influence (the Jack the Riper story is an example). Some of the others are much more interesting (a future version of the Salem Witch Trials -- I forget the title of the story) and show more of how the nature of man is influenced by evil. And still some of the others are more "blatant" in their show of DIRECT intervention by the devil and/or his henchmen --such as in the story DEVIL TO PAY-- where you might have guessed that it deals with selling your soul but this one has a bit of a twist (not much but just enough to squash the cliche story line).

Overall the collection is interesting but it isn't "scary" or very complex/suspenseful. Would I buy a "Book II" from this collection of short stories...?? NO.
The stories were written well (flow, characters, etc) but the stories were just not that interesting. They didn't grab me. Short stories MUST had something special to grab the audience in a short period of time...the majority of the book was just flat (in my opinion).

Wow, what an awesome compilation of short stories. I decided to read this book, "The Devil Will Come", at night, all Alone and with total silence. Great choice. Several of these stories gave me goose bumps and had me looking around while reading. They did have me on thgthge edge if me seat with uneasiness. There also were one or two that just didn't quite strike my fancy, but that happens. All-in-all, I was very pleased with this book. I was pleased when I won this book in the contest. I would love to read more books by Justin Gustainis in the very near future.

The Devil Will Come, overall, was a good compilation of short stories. Each one was told in such a way that they were enjoyable even if I knew where the story was going, and some went in completely different directions than expected.½

I enjoyed this book and enjoy the genre. To people who have not yet started it, you may want to skip over the first story. It depicts a version of the meeting up and and engagement of two classic horror characters, and it comes across as uninspired. Many of the other stories, however, come across as quite original and entertaining.

One very original chapter involves 'office workers' which is a nice break from haunted castles. Another fuses Greek and New Testament mythologies to an Upper West Side gang story from Laurents and Bernstein. In it, a carefully disguised dark angel tries to warn gang types away from a minotaur of sorts. A third depicts an attempt to insert a supernatural mole into the White House.

The characters are sometimes unoriginal. The strength of the book lies in the era and the context of each story which make it fascinating.

I had a hard time with this. I love horror books and was having high hopes for this but I was finding myself rolling eyes more often than paying attention to what was going on in the stories. Not that all the stories were horrible but they were just missing something.

The Devil Will Come — A Modern Collection of Devilish Fiction by Justin Gustainis

I received a complementary copy of this collection in exchange for a review. Now full disclosure: I almost had to force myself to continue reading after the sixth story. That was short lived as I only got as far as story seven out of Justin Gustainis’ twenty-two short stories of his scary devil tales — with a werewolf thrown in for good measure.
I approached this book with some trepidation as devil stories can be full of gore and obscenities. I’ve read some books of evil and the devil that literally caused the back of my neck to tingle with terror. On that count I needn’t worry since Gustainis treats his version of the devil and evil with all the force of a pathetic B movie from the fifties. In fact, of the seven stories read the concept of Evil is not explored. His frightening stories are tedious and unimaginative with a odd amalgam of timeworn dialog more at home from TV classics of the fifties and sixties such as “Dragnet”, “Highway Patrol” and “The Twilight Zone” with scenes that mix the mid-century image of a “hard boiled” cop using modern DVDs and computers (with dial-up modems no less). His dated writing reminds me of those frozen TV dinners from my childhood. These culinary conveniences of compartmentalized aluminum contained dull, lifeless veggies, some kind of odd-colored meat product, gummy potatoes and a tasteless dessert. Just like the title of this collection the package graphics of the TV dinners promised a wonderful meal (OK, exaggeration) while the experience proved otherwise.
Of course this review just reflects my personal taste. Dr. Gustainis has published multiple times — most in this supernatural genre. He is also a respected college professor of communications and I should imagine and really decent guy. Nevertheless when it comes to devil tales I prefer The Exorcist.

This book was received as an Early Review selection. Like many others who have reviewed this book, I was not expecting much; there seem to be lots of these anthologies out there, and few of them are very good. This one was an exception, and I am not ashamed to say that I frequently found myself sitting way longer than was good for me, just to be able to find out what happened next. While the stories might not have the impact of sheer terror that many authors strive for, I will say that several of the works made me sit and think... and for those of us with an imagination, that is frequently worse than the initial terror of the story, causing the tales to have their strongest impact several minutes, hours, or even days after I finished reading them. I truly hope that this author will continue writing along this same vein, for there is some extraordinary talent here ready to by honed to a fine point.

I really enjoy this book, The Devil Will Come. There are times where I prefer reading short stories over a long novel. This collection of short stories were definitely a page turner. A few of the stories I made sure my lights were on and my TV was on and my dogs were sitting with me. These stories, minus the few humorous ones, scared the dickens out of me. I truly believe in God and demons........Heaven and Hell. A few times I placed the book down and picked it back up the next day, very unnerving, to say the least. Awesome writing. Will definitely keep you on your toes. Recommend this book of short stories to those that don't scare easily or who don't think they do.
I received this early, unedited edition in exchange for my honest review of this book. Great book but not for the squeamish, hehehe. 😁👍

I received a copy of this book from the Library Thing Early Reviewer program in return for a review. I have read other books that contained short stories like these and, for the most part, they were not that great. So, I didn't have much hope for this set of stories. I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't even realize how much I was drawn into these stories until I looked at the clock and it was 1:00AM. They are an easy read and and you really can't wait to find out what the next story is about (hence the 1:00AM). They are not super scary but they do contain their fair share of demons, vampires, werewolves, etc. I would highly recommend this book to everyone who loves to be entertained by stories from the Horror genre.

I received a copy of this book from the Library Thing Early Reviewer program in return for a review. I liked the caveat at the front of the book that this was an uncorrected proof copy; I was not expected to proofread it. I could just comment on the stories. I recall finding one incorrect word choice; it did not slow down my reading. This is an entertaining collection of stories; there is a list at the end of the book about where the stories were first published. Collections of short stories have many tales that are good companion pieces to carry around and read during boring staff meetings. I will comment on each of the stories.

Introduction It is good to read introductions. Here we find out that at least two of the stories are whimsical, having been written for family oriented magazines. The rest are meant to scare (and entertain) the reader.

Until I Come Again From this story, the reader might think the Devil fills a support role for Jack the Ripper.

Advocatus Diaboli I was quite entertained by the discussion of the meanings of “devil’s advocate.” Another interesting thing to consider is this story appearing in the 2016 election year

Bargain The FBI passed up an offer to trade a high-value criminal for a lower level, too bad for the eventual victim.

Again the Burning Times The Salem Witch Trials are revisited in a high-tech world. There are Similar results for similar reasons (protection of reputation and political position) but updated.

Damnation.com Decisions must be made under a deadline. Was the right decision made here?

Meat Wagon Sometimes you do not want to know what is inside the trucks that travel our streets unmarked.

Let Us Prey As a person who loves a good play on words, I could almost see this one coming. But the one I saw was in the title. The really clever language play is embedded in the story. Read business cards carefully.

Reunion Sometimes you just don’t want to be recognized, even if the person who recognizes you is your spouse.

Good Egg This is one of the whimsical stories. It might have been meant for kids but it might be difficult to convince them of breakfast with eggs after this

Blood Moon Rising This is the story with the most unexpected ending. I like surprise endings.

Bounty He was proud of his dad. He wanted to grow up and fill dad’s shoes as a lawman until he found a career much more interesting.

The Predators A classic tale of betrayal. With all these characters, who is betraying whom?

Devil to Pay Susan thought she was in business to buy souls, but the nearby competition was stiff.

Janus Janus could not lie, but that doesn’t mean you should take all his words at face value.

The Last Sorcerer Krause had just seen the last sorcerer on Earth die. There were no more, right?

Deal Breaker This is another take on how to break a contract with the Devil.

Surprise Attack The NRA is not going to like this story.

Soul Survivor Another tale you should pay attention to if you have to fool the devil sometime in the future.

Huff / Puff The second whimsical tale, one of witches, spirits, and pigs.

Bump in the Night This is a tale illustrating the principle of Occam’s Razor. Sometimes the most obvious and simple answer is the correct one.

Courtesy Call Two cool cops trying to deliver a warning. They were a bit too cool. I am not quite sure why this story is in this collection, but it is worth reading.

Last Rights Speed reading is good. Who would imagine that speed talking can also be valuable?