Review: The Shabti by Megaera C. Lorenz

Title: The Shabti

Author: Megaera C. Lorenz

Length: 498 Pages

Category: Historical, Paranormal

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: The supernatural elements in this story are tied to Ancient Egypt, and the author’s knowledge of the subject is not only obvious but extensive. The Shabti is as sweet and sincere as a story featuring an ancient homicidal spirit can be.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Can you flimflam a ghost?

It’s 1934. Former medium Dashiel Quicke travels the country debunking spiritualism and false mediums while struggling to stay ahead of his ex-business partner and lover who wants him back at any cost. During a demonstration at a college campus, Dashiel meets Hermann Goschalk, an Egyptologist who’s convinced that he has a genuine haunted artifact on his hands. Certain there is a rational explanation for whatever is going on with Hermann’s relics, Dashiel would rather skip town, but soon finds himself falling for Hermann. He agrees to take a look after all and learns that something is haunting Hermann’s office indeed.

Faced with a real ghost Dashiel is terrified, but when the haunting takes a dangerous turn, he must use the tools of the shady trade he left behind to communicate with this otherworldly spirit before his past closes in.

Review: When both Jordan L. Hawk and KJ Charles blurb a book, that’s a book I will pay attention to. The Shabti is that book, and it’s every bit as delightful and entertaining as I hoped it would be.

The supernatural elements in the story are tied to Ancient Egypt, and the author’s knowledge of the subject is not only obvious but extensive. Everything spooky and spectral is connected to an artifact that’s oozing its bad vibes all over Professor Hermann Goschalk’s students. So what’s an Egyptologist to do when he needs a professional opinion about dark mojo? He acquaints himself with a Spiritualist.

Or, rather, someone whose mission it is to debunk that sort of nonsense.

The tangle in the tale is that Dashiel Quicke, at one time, was one such charlatan, though he’s spent the past few years exposing and disproving spiritualism and proving mediums the frauds he himself once was. Hermann is becoming increasingly concerned, though, troubled enough to invite Dashiel to have a look at the college’s Egyptian antiquities.

Then all hell breaks loose, and does so in a fantastic fashion.

Hermann is such a mensch, though he wouldn’t call himself that. I loved his earnestness and sweet sincerity, especially where Dashiel is concerned. Hermann wears his heart fully on his sleeve, and while Dashiel doesn’t want anything to do with what’s haunting Hermann, it’s not long before he’s hooked on both the haunting and the man.

The Shabti is as sweet and sincere as a story featuring an ancient homicidal spirit can be.