Deadly Curiosities

By: Gail Z. Martin

Narrated by: Therese Plummer

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.

©2014 Gail Z. Martin (P)2016 Recorded Books

Great story!

I love the narrator! She brings the great writing to life! I recommend this author and definitely the narrator Therese Plummer.

great story but over acted

I do love this book. the narrator while good seems to over act in places. it's just my own personal preference.

History can be exciting

Cassidy Kincaide owns a high-end pawn and antique shop, which she inherited from her uncle. She is psychometric. She can touch something and find the history of an item. Items are categorized as spooky, which has a malevolence aura or sparkler, which have a psychic reading but not dangerous.
She and her assistant Teag who has weaver magic, and her 500-year old vampire partner, Sorren, works for the Alliance. It is a global organization that removes dangerous artifacts from the market. Bodies are turning up dead and mutilated. Artifacts, which were once non-threatening, are now dangerous. Cassidy and her team began to investigate when things turn menacing.
Cassidy and her team are competent fighters and use many artifacts to augment their powers or to access the power of the artifact. They also have a cadre friends, Lucinda, a mambo, which is a priestess in the Haitian Vodou religion, Chuck, former black ops, and Mirvo, a demon hunter, to assist in their fight against evil. Many of the fights are because Teag and Cassidy were told not to investigate something. Of course, our heroes do not heed that advice. They find themselves in harrowing situations. But the fight at the end is epic.
There is a lot of history about the items and locations as Cassidy and team try to make connections. They gather information through the gossip of the elite, research on the dark web (this is Teag’s specialty. Through weaver magic he can follow threads on the internet) and specialty museums.
I expect that since Cassidy reads the history of things that will be the format for future books. Giving a recitation of the items can get a little boring, but there is a lot of exciting stuff happening that I will read the next book in the series.

Nice combination of real world and urban fantasy

The book was excellent all around. The book is fun. It has good world building. It has (main and side) characters that are easy to like. I has already been introduce to the characters from another series. I had not been able to find this series on Amazon (well they were there, I think, but the listings were confusing). So I was excited to find these here at audible. I am glad that I waited, because Therese Plummer reading this book series in a southern accent was magical in itself. I was shocked when I first started listen. I was not ready for a woman to start talking to me in a southern drawl. Then I started laughing so hard I had to pull over. You need to be ready for it. But it honestly could not have been more perfect and it added to the excellent book.

worth the read

I was not going to listen however I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome

In the tradition of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files

Excellent read for people who like realistic fantasy. Memorable characters you'll grow fond of. Warning: it's hard to put down.

Good Horror/Urban Fantasy

I really enjoyed the characters and the plot. Though I did think the characters could have made a few intuitive leaps from the information they had, instead of dragging some of the reveal of clues out. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Exciting Adventure

I was a bit overwhelmed at times understanding what the premise/plot actually was-I felt as though I had missed a book or something though this says Book 1. I settled into it though. It was a dark story with heroines and heroes and nary a romance in sight. Refreshing really. I have bought the next book.

couldn't get over the performance

Unfortunately I was bored out of my mind and couldn't get through Chapter 10.

Desperately needs humor and romance

This book is at least 4 hours too long. Tons of action and spookiness. The creep factor was startled me at times. The problem was the lack of life in the main characters. I found them boring most of the time. The story is actually very good conceptually the author just needed to have a little fun and liven up some of the banter.