Santa Muerte? Any relation to “Santa Claus?” Nope! Read on!

The Eric Carter trilogy by Stephen Blackmoore is one of the best series of urban fantasy on par with Dresden Files , by Jim Butcher, in its imaginative use of folklore, myth, and artistic creativity.

Eric Carter, a necromancer who not only sees dead people but can cross back-and-forth between the realm of the living and the dead and can cajole the dead in various ways, flees from Los Angeles to keep his family and friends safe from a gangster who is threatening him through them. But his sister is murdered and he returns to LA to find the killer and bring him (or her?) to justice. Discovering that the murder was not only horrific but magickal as well, Eric is forced to seek the assistance of Santa Muerte, one the goddesses of death. This assistance comes — of course! — with a hefty price tag which comes due in the second book of the series. (Hungry Ghosts, the third and final installment of the series was finally released last month, at the beginning of February. I have been looking forward to it since its original release date, which was scheduled for last July!)

Santa Muerte has been in the news herself recently. The Roman Catholic bishops in US condemned the very popular cult of Santa Muerte, which is growing rapidly and spreading across the southwestern US. Although the goddess has roots in the medieval “art of dying” handbooks that people consulted in order to prepare for a good death or dying in a holy manner, her modern devotees seem to often be drug dealers or paid killers. (The medieval handbooks are still good to consult as we modern folk prepare to face our own mortality. We will all die, although most of us pretend that we will never die. Preparing to face death is better than being surprised; making plans for how we wish to die is a good thing whether we die in the 15th century or the 21st.)