by Andrew Givler
DETAILS:
Series: Debt Collection, #1
Publisher: Sad Seagull Publishing
Publication Date: June 30, 2022
Format: e-Book
Length: 364 pg.
Read Date: April 13-15, 2026
When you’re a kid, your mother tells you not to let your friends peer-pressure you into drinking, doing drugs, and other stuff. But she never covered what to do if an acquaintance offered to help you summon a demon. Or at least mine didn’t. She completely skipped that chapter.
What’s Soul Fraud About?
Our narrator/protagonist is Matthew Carver, and we meet him on his 24th birthday, while he’s hiding from his friends. It’s also the fourth anniversary of the death of his mother and sisters, and he’s just not up for another well-intentioned attempt to cheer him up on the day.
That night, he also meets a particularly unscrupulous demon. I realize that seems like an unnecessary description—but even demons have to follow rules. Dan the demon works in Hell’s Sales Department—and he wants to give Matt10 fantastic years of life, for the low, low price of his soul.
Matt’s read enough books and watched enough films to know that this is a horrible bargain and turns him down. Dan’s apparently on a streak of no-sales and decides he can’t take one more, so he forges Matt’s signature on the contract and bolts.
Before you know it, unbelievably good things start happening to Matt, who is suddenly a believer in the supernatural.
Still, he knows these things shouldn’t be happening—and he doesn’t want to lose his soul. So he sets out to find a way out of the contract. With the help of a new supernatural (but mostly human) pal, Alex, and some other supernatural heavy hitters, set out to find a way out of this mess.
And let’s just say that isn’t going to be easy.
A Pet Peeve
It bugs me when Christians, anti-Christians, TV/Film/Books do this—which means I’m annoyed by this frequently. But the Nephalim are not the descendants of demons and human women (or, I guess, the reverse). That’s not what Genesis was communicating, and the abuse this view has led to in the hands of fiction writers gets to me. Seeing it here gave me pause.
That said…what Givler does with his Nephalim was a lot of fun. That they’re known as Fae or Demigods (and who knows what else), depending on the nationality of their appearance, was great. So, yeah, Achilles and Hercules are Nephalim (and a couple of others given by name, but let’s let you read them).
Basically, if Givler had called them anything else, I wouldn’t have blinked. If anything, I’d have thought “Oh, cool, he didn’t go with the stupid Nephalim thing” and totally forgotten it.
Matt’s Pet Peeve
There are two types of people: those who need at least twenty minutes of silence after waking up and savages. If you’re smiling before 9 a.m., there’s something wrong with you.
Matt is not a morning person. Particularly when he’s been physically attacked, or has had his soul stolen, or any number of other reasons that this book is full of. He makes this very clear on multiple occasions.
I, for one, related to them all—found his repeated rants about them funny and worth quoting. I really enjoyed Givler taking the time to let Matt talk about this repeatedly.
Why did I pick this up? Why did I keep reading?
I picked this up because the premise sounded interesting, and it’d been too long since I pitched in for a The Write Reads/BBNYA book tour. Also, I sort of figure anyone who’s paying for a Chris McGrath cover has taken the process seriously enough that the book is going to be worth a read.
I stuck with it because I liked Matt—even through most of his whinging. But his self-deprecating humor, his general outlook on life, and his flailing around to get out of this hole endeared him to me. Also, he’s carrying around a lot of unearned guilt, and I’d like to see him deal with that. Things he does by the end of the book solidify that endearment, but I’ll keep them to myself for now.
Sure, I found his predicament and the other characters interesting—but as I’ve said repeatedly, give me a good narrative voice, and I’m in for the ride—and Matt has one of those.
What does this book tell us about humanity?
This book, in a way that you really only get in Fantasy/Urban Fantasy, is a case study in the frailty of humanity. Matt faces person after person after person (or, better, entity after entity after entity) that could squash him like an already dead bug. And he persists—in fact, he insists on staying involved even when he’s told to let the powerful types handle a situation (very much like Harry Dresden). Nevertheless, he is virtually a nothing compared to everyone he’s dealing with.
Honestly? I think it’s good for fiction—or non-fiction—to remind us of our place in the universe. I’ve read too many things where humans are taking on every challenge without a sweat, or seem equal to anything that comes their way. And all you have to do is look at a blue whale and know how ridiculous that is. You get something bigger/more powerful? (for example, Satan’s girlfriend) It needs to be a nigh-overwhelming challenge. And that’s what we get here.
So, what did I think about Soul Fraud?
…I was tired of not being able to help anyone. I was tired of not being able to control my life. I was tired of hurting the people I cared about. I was going to do something about it, come Hell or high water. Or I would get eaten by a ghoul. One of the two. My tombstone could read: HERE LIES MATT, AT LEAST HE TRIED. ONCE.
I would’ve liked the series title to be explained—or even hinted at—in these pages. But I can be patient. I really don’t care what the series is called, just that there are already a handful of books for me to press on with.
I do wonder about Matt being 24 and having so little experience with alcohol—if he turned 21 at the opening of the book, it’d make sense. I don’t mean to suggest that there’s a requirement that every red-blooded American male has to have a lot of experience with it by the time they’re 24, but he should have some—or at least have an explanation in the text. If it’s there, I missed it.
I also missed any discussion of his job—he has to make money from somewhere. Sure, he and Connor discuss jobs he can look for. But I didn’t register anything that he had—or any attempt to explain to his employer where he is over the couple of days he falls into supernatural shenanigans.
And that’s the sum of my problems with this book. Excepting my personal pet peeve, the rest of it clicked like clockwork for me.
The supporting characters are pretty interesting and well-drawn, and the book moves fast and smoothly (there’s one or two points that might drag a bit, but they provide much-needed world-building and they’re not that long). At one point, Matt compares himself to a pinball at one point—and that’s a great comparison—he bounces from one life-threatening event/encounter to another with just enough time to recover, mostly.
You fill that amount of action with a quippy protagonist, an almost-as-quippy friend, and some super-powered allies/foes? We’re talking a lot of fun.
I’m planning on getting to book 2 quickly, and in the meantime, I encourage you to grab Stolen Fraud right away.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
My thanks to The Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the novel) they provided.
Enemy of My Enemy
