Narrated by Kale Williams

Morgan Brice’s Badlands is the first book in a series featuring medium and
clairvoyant Sebastian (Simon) Kincaide – a former university professor and expert
in mythology and folklore – and Lt. Vic D’Amato, a homicide detective whose one
brush with the supernatural a couple of years before the story opens almost
cost him his career. It’s a murder mystery with a paranormal twist, but
although the premise was intriguing, the execution left a bit to be desired,
both in terms of the romance and the mystery.

Sebastian now goes by Simon (which I think
is his middle name?) and has done since he moved to Myrtle Beach in South
Carolina following his dismissal from his university post some three years
earlier. His courses on myths and folklore were popular, but when the crazy
fundamentalist father of one of his students – who was also a member of the
university board – took issue with the course content and then discovered
reports online of Simon’s clairvoyance, his department was forced to dismiss
him. Simon now owns a thriving business in the resort of Myrtle Beach – Grand
Stand Ghost Tours – and makes his living from holding seances, running tours,
and giving talks and classes.

Vic D’Amato relocated to Myrtle Beach after
he left his post in Pittsburgh following an incident he still can’t explain. He
shot a suspect and then watched some sort of glowing green fog transfer from
the body to another person, like in a horror movie – but with no witnesses,
nobody believed his story or wanted to work with him. Now, he’s on the hunt for
the serial killer dubbed the Strand Slitter, who is preying on the migrant
workers who flock to the area during the tourist season.

Vic meets Simon while they’re standing in
line at the local coffee shop, and immediately likes what he sees. They’re
chatting easily and just a bit flirtatiously over their coffee when Vic has to
step out to take an urgent phone call – and is disappointed when he returns to
find Simon gone. But the case has to be his priority, so in the face of the frustrating
lack of progress – and in spite of his intense scepticism about the paranormal
– Vic has decided to see if the psychic of Grand Stand Ghost Tours can contact
the spirits of any of the victims. And along the way, he can pop into the other
shops along the boardwalk… just in case he might spot Simon in one of them.

Vic’s idea of the Grand Strand psychic as a
middle-aged woman in flowing robes with a dodgy accent is quickly dispelled
when he enters the shop to find the very man he’s been searching for behind the
counter. Vic explains what he wants and Simon agrees to do a reading – but Vic
gets more than he bargained for when Simon not only contacts the most recent
victim, but also gives him a message from the glowing-green-fog-woman from two
years before. Vic is completely fazed by this and throws all sorts of unfounded
and unpleasant accusations at Simon before walking out, infuriated with himself
at having had the stupid idea of going to a medium in the first place… and
severely disappointed because the first man he’s really connected with in a
long while has proved to be a charlatan whack-job.

Vic’s reaction is nothing Simon hasn’t seen
before, but he’s no less hurt and disappointed; and though Vic knows he behaved
like a total arsehole, he also knows he can’t afford to get mixed up in
something that could hurt his career again – no matter how strong the spark
between them. But when Simon becomes a target, it becomes impossible for Vic to
hold to his determination to keep his distance – and not only that, it opens up
the possibility that the Strand Slitter may not have been targeting itinerants
after all, but is selecting his victims for entirely different reasons.

The set-up for the mystery is intriguing,
and the opposite positions taken by Vic and Simon on the supernatural are
naturally going to provide plenty of conflict in the romance, but the story
didn’t quite live up to its promise. I mostly liked Simon and Vic, although it
was hard to believe that such a hardened sceptic as Vic would come up with the
idea of attempting to contact the spirits of the victims, and there’s no getting
away from the fact that he’s a dick to Simon on several occasions. Simon doesn’t
cover himself in glory either, and veers dangerously close to TSTL territory when
he withholds information on the assumption that Vic won’t believe him and then,
near the end, heads out to confront the villain alone. I liked that both men
were looking for something beyond a short-lived affair, but their relationship
moves rather quickly from hurt and anger and scepticism to true-wuv – plus it’s
a wonder they can walk a lot of the time given their propensity to sprout
boners whenever they’re in proximity to each other! Honestly, do men in their
thirties (Vic is thirty-one, Simon thirty-five) get erections every five
minutes (or ten seconds!) just from talking to someone they find attractive?

The writing is decent, albeit prone to more
telling than showing, and the pacing is slow in places and gets bogged down in
unnecessary repetition. The final showdown between Simon and the Slitter is
suitably dramatic, but the killer’s motivations prove to be surprisingly
mundane, which was a big disappointment.

I’ve enjoyed a number of Kale Williams’
performances before, so I knew the narration would be more than decent when I
picked up Badlands for review. He
has an attractive voice that’s easy on the ear, his pacing is just right, and although
his character differentiation tends to be quite subtle (by which I mean he’s
not one for huge variations in pitch or timbre) the two leads are clearly
delineated, with Vic having a slightly gruffer, deeper tone than Simon. He communicates
their shifting emotions for and about one another really well, infusing their
playful banter with genuine warmth and ably conveying the hurt and frustration
they feel when Vic’s scepticism causes him to mistrust Simon and his motives. Many
of the secondary characters speak accented English – most of them Eastern
European, a few not – and Mr. Williams is able to adopt appropriately
convincing accents and maintain them across a variety of characters and scenes.
The few female characters in the story are delineated more by means of accent
than any major change in pitch or tone, but again, they’re easily distinguished
and I was never confused as to who was speaking at any given time.

Badlands
was reasonably entertaining, but while Kale Williams’
performance is certainly worth listening to, the story has weaknesses I
couldn’t quite ignore which prevent me from giving it an unreserved
recommendation.