City of the Lost Books In Order

Publication Order of Eric Carter/City of the Lost Books

City of the Lost is a series of dark urban fantasy novels written by American author of science fiction, mystery and thriller and short stories, Stephen Blackmore. The series follows Eric Carter, a necromancer as he enters a world of unforgiving gods and goddess, restless ghosts, and mysterious murders. Carter’s problems keep on getting bigger each day, and unfortunate for him, he is the unwilling husband of Santa Murder, the patron saint of death. Blackmore began the publication of City of the Lost series in 2012 when the first book in the Series City of the Lost was published.

City of the Lost

In the first book in the series, a mission to steal a priceless stone goes awfully wrong, and a professional thief named Joe is killed. Now Joe, a zombie with a longing for human hearts and everyone else in the town is after the stone. Is there anyone whom Joe can trust? Can he find the priceless stone before another man uses the stone to become immortal?

Joe Sunday, the main character in City of the Lost is not your typical zombie, he does not crave for human brains like the traditional zombie’s everyone knows about, but instead, he craves on human hearts to survive and prevent him from falling apart. He is a hired gun turned zombie, and he needs to find a mystical stone that has the power to make any mortal man immortal. There are thousands of magical types of people trying to get their hands on the precious stones, and they will all make all sorts of empty promises to poor Joe who is running around the town trying to keep himself from falling apart and trying to figure out whom to trust. Even the cops cannot be trusted.

City of the Lost is an exciting series opener, a tale that happens to feature a zombie as the main character. The dialogue in this book is hard-boiled and in the present tense. It is revealed that Joe was never a good guy before being transformed into a zombie and even death did not improve his manners. He mercilessly kills and bludgeons his way through this narrative, all in the name of the magical stone that can make him immortal. On the other hand, the supporting characters are fantastic bunch: for instance, there is Neumann, the Nazi sorcerer, and his henchmen Jughead and Archie. Jughead is a small man with a demeanor and teeth of a pitbull; there is Samantha, a woman with evil connections, Frank Tanaka, an investigator concerned with the precious stone whereabouts and Bruja, the urban witch. The variety of characters that Blackmore adds to the story, most of whom are after the stones makes the book exciting and gives it a unique flavor. The author writing style crackles with an explicit imagery without bogging it down with unnecessary words. It is a seamlessly hard-boiled detective, presented in a first-person perspective, yet descriptive, conversational and incredibly engaging, with lots of plot twist and turns to keep the readers engaged.

Dead Things

A necromancer might be such an ugly word, but Eric Carter is a man who cannot escape the fact that he is a necromancer. He has the powers to communicate with the dead, see ghosts, and has turned his ability into a lucrative business putting troublesome spirits to rest and sometimes even taking dangerous paths for a fee of course.

When he left Los Angeles a decade and a half ago, he thought that he would never return, given the fact that too many people wanted him dead. However, now his beloved sister has been murdered, and Carter wants to find out why she was killed. Was it an old adversary seeking to settle some old scores? Could it be the ghost of a magician he killed the night before he left town? Alternatively, could it be the patron saint of death herself, Santa Muerte, a woman who has taken a keen interest in him?

Eric’s investigation into the cause of his sister’s death soon puts him in the crosshairs of some of the most dangerous people from his past. As if that is not enough for Eric, he attracts unwanted attraction from Santa Muerte, the patron of Death who wants to recruit him to her team. Getting answers to his sister’s death, Carter is required to make a matrimonial deal that binds his soul, a fair deal at the time. The person who killed her sister is not done yet, and her death was committed for a specific reason and the closer he gets, the more danger he puts everyone he cares about.

Broken Souls

After 15 years on the run, Eric Carter returns to Los Angeles, he knew that things were much worse than he had left, but never imagined how dangerous they could get. His sister killed, his best friend murdered as well, and now married to the Santa Muerte, the patron saint of death.

His connection to the Santa Muerte is changing his powers, transforming him, and he is not sure how worse it could get. He questions his sanity, thinking that he is losing his mind, but not a surprise for a man capable of seeing ghosts and communicating with the dead. To survive, Carter has to change the rules of the game, from hunting to the hunter, and all he has at disposal is Skid Row Bruja, and a ghost who is either his own guilt psychotic break or Carters own guilt.

Eric Carter’s life has never been comfortable, forced to marry Queen of the Dead, he is desperate to find a way to invalidate the binding vows. Besides from the wedding band that he cannot get rid of his finger, his eyes are transforming into a pitch black marbles. He understands that his decision to get married was a hasty one, but there has to be a way out.

The author, Stephen Blackmore does a fantastic job of sending Carter into a world that he barely understands. Set in Los Angeles, Broken Souls features lots of violence, plenty of twists and turns to keep the readers glued from the first page to the last.