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Haunted is the fifth novel in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. It is narrated by Eve Levine.

Synopsis[]

Eve Levine — half-demon, black witch and devoted mother — has been dead for three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can’t be killed again — which comes in handy when you’ve made as many enemies as Eve. Yes, the afterlife isn’t too bad — all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with her daughter, Savannah, and she’ll be happy.

But fate — or more exactly, the Fates — have other plans. Eve owes them a favor, and they’ve just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy — previous hunters have been driven insane in the process. As if that’s not problem enough, the only way to stop her is with an angel’s sword. And Eve is no angel. . . .

Plot[]

Eve splits her afterlife between fixating on Savannah and enjoying her second chance at a relationship with Kristof in the afterlife. Kristof wants to rekindle their romantic relationship, but Eve is resisting. Kristof is patient, and keeps prodding her to accept that Savannah has her own life that Eve can’t interfere with.

The Fates recruit Eve to search for the Nix, a demi-demon who gives her partners the resolve to commit killing sprees. Eve rotates between working with Jaime Vegas, the angel Trsiel, and Kristoff to hunt down information about the Nix’s previous partners in an attempt to find her before her next rash of murders. As Eve works with them and Trsiel, she realizes that this is case is intended as an inaugural quest to make her an angel. Eve has no interest in doing so, especially once she discovers she would be permanently separated from Kristof.

Eve speaks to the previous bounty hunters that the Fates sent after the Nix: Janah, an angel who was driven to madness by the quest; Katsuo, another angel who was too rule-bound to trick the Nix into capture; and Andrei Dachov, a supernatural ghost and sadistic serial killer who betrayed the Fates and became the Nix’s partner mid-hunt.

Eve also talks to several of the Nix’s former partners: Lizzie Borden, who is now a ghost in a hell of her own making, forced to relive the murders she committed over and over; Amanda Sullivan, a still-living partner currently in maximum-security prison….. The living former partners sometimes get glimpses of what the Nix is doing now, and Eve uses this to zero in on the demi-demon.

She goes through numerous trials in search of information, including interrogating the half-demon con artist Luthor Ross; speaking to the imprisoned demon Dantalian; and visiting Andrei Dachov in his hell dimension.

Once the Nix realizes Eve is on her trail, she zeroes in on Eve’s living loved ones. She partners with Lily, a janitor at Savannah’s rec center, to engineer a killing spree there. Eve is unable to protect Savannah as a ghost, but Trsiel manages to divert a bullet from Savannah into another victim.

Next the Nix possesses Jaime to get closer to Savannah. Killing the Nix would kill her host, but they discover that the Nix leaves the hosts’s body while the host is in the process of dying. So Eve retrieves and uses the Dantalian amulet to fully possess Paige, and she works with Lucas  to put Jaime in mortal peril without truly killing her. In the heat of the action, Eve reveals herself to Savannah to explain “Pagie’s” behavior. They manage to separate the Nix from Jaime’s body and Trsiel attempts to capture her, but he is on the ghost plane and cannot. In order to save Savannah from the Nix, Eve agrees to become an angel for the Fates and strikes the Nix down with the Sword of Judgement.

Afterward, the Fates say that they respect Eve’s original decision not to become an angel. They cannot reverse the choice Eve made, but they can make a Persephone deal with her: Eve will spend six months of the year working for the Creator on heavenly quests, and the other six months in the ghost world with Kristoff.

Eve has finally found her purpose and place in the afterlife, and has accepted that Savannah has to live her own life in the living world.

Characters[]

Ghost World[]

  • Eve Levine - Witch, Aspicio Half-demon and mother of Savannah. Now dead.
  • Kristof Nast - Sorcerer father of Savannah. Now dead.
  • Fates, The - Deities in charge of the afterlife (see Moirae)
  • Nix, The - Demi-demon.
  • Trsiel - Angel charged with the task of assisting Eve
  • Other angels: Zadkiel, Janah, Shekinah, Balthial, Katsuo
  • Luther Ross - Poltergeist, Gelo (ice) half-demon and womanizer.
  • Dantalian - imprisoned full demon. Created an amulet that allows someone with demon blood to fully possess a living person.
  • Wraith-clerks
  • the Searchers

Living World[]

  • Savannah Levine - 15 year old witch and ward of Paige Winterbourne. Daughter of Eve Levine (Witch & Aspicio half Demon) & Kristof Nast (Sorcerer & heir to Nast Cabal)
  • Jaime Vegas - Necromancer
  • Paige Winterbourne - Witch and Former Head of American Coven. Wife of Lucas Cortez.
  • Lucas Cortez - Sorcerer Lawyer and husband of Paige Winterbourne, Son of Benicio Cortez and heir of Cortez Cabal.
  • Jeremy Danvers - Alpha of the North American Werwolf Pack. Jaime's crush.

Nix's Partners[]

  • France, 1666:
    • Marie-Madeline d’Aubrey de Brinvilliers - a witch who summoned the Nix in the 1600s. The original reason for the Nix's restrictions on possession.
    • Nicolette - a necromancer who watches Marie-Madeline's execution and sees an angel strike down the Nix from Marie-Madeline's body.
  • 1892: Lizzie Borden - an Colonial American woman infamous for killing her whole family in cold blood.
  • San Francisco, 1927: Jolynn is a particularly dull partner who needs lots of prodding from the Nix to come up with feasible plans. The Nix abandons her to the authorities.
  • Cleveland, 1938: Agnes Miller - a surgeon who focuses her killings on sending a message to the authorities. The press dubs her the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.
  • Andrei Dachev - a supernatural serial killer who the Fates recruited to help catch the Nix. He became her partner instead.
  • Suzanne Simmons. Killed children. Now dead.
  • Cheri MacKenzie. Copycatted Suzanne Simmons' work. Now dead.
    • Robin MacKenzie, her husband and partner in crime. A serial rapist who was "just having some fun." Now dead.
  • Amanda Sullivan, now held in maximum-security prison for horrifically murdering her own children to punish her husband. A good source of information on the Nix's current whereabouts.
  • Lily, a janitor at Savannah's rec center who goes on a killing spree that puts Savannah in danger.

Publication[]

See also: Goodreads - Editions of Haunted by Kelley Armstrong

Haunted was first published in 2005. It has been republished numerous times including a recent audio CD re-release in 2021.

Translations[]

  • German: Nacht der Geister ("Night of the Ghosts")
  • French: Hantiste ("Haunting")

Alternate Covers[]

Otherworld Series
Women of the Otherworld Novels
BittenStolenDime Store MagicIndustrial MagicHauntedBrokenNo Humans InvolvedPersonal DemonLiving With The DeadWaking the WitchSpell BoundThirteen
Collections
Men of the OtherworldTales of the OtherworldOtherworld NightsOtherworld SecretsOtherworld ChillsLed Astray
Novellas
SavageAscensionChaoticAngelicCounterfeit MagicThe Case of El Chupacabra, BeginningsBewitchedForbiddenHiddenVanishing ActThe Ungrateful Dead
Short Stories
V PlatesThe ListChivalrousLucifer's DaughterLearning CurveLife SentenceTwilightZen and the Art of VampirismParanormal Romance BluesStalkedRebirthInfusionKitsunegariDemonologyBirthrightThe Case of the Half-Demon SpyExpectationsTruth and ConsequencesTerritorialGhostsEscapeWedding Bell HellAdventurerBargainFramedBamboozledYoung Bloods
Graphic Novels
BecomingBounty Hunt
Kate & Logan
Wolf's BaneWolf's Curse
  1. Per Haunted, it has been three years since the events of Stolen and Savannah is now 15 years old. Savannah was born in 1987 per http://kelleyarmstrong.com/PDFs/Otherworld-Character-List.pdf
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