History Literature / ShamanBlues

* WitchClassic: [[spoiler:Anna's]] mother isn't WitchSpecies like Dora, but a hedge witch - ''czarownica'' - who uses spells and potions.

* ShirtlessScene: As Witkacy is just after a shower when Konstancja rings the doorbell, he opens her the door half-naked, with naught but a towel to protect his modesty.

** Witkacy himself, with his pale hair and paler coat, not to mention ability to see ghosts, looks like 'ComicBook/{{Constantine}} {{expy}}.

* {{Necromancer}}: Katia is one, although she spends most of her "working hours" putting the dead back to rest rather than raising them.

* BiggerOnTheInside: [[spoiler:Róża's house]] is much bigger than its outside appearance may suggest, leading to Witkacy getting severely lost.

* AndIMustScream: The ghosts the villain of the latter half of the story drew in to create her abominations. They're mashed together into beasts that must always follow their creator's order, and she wants them to attack and kill while all they wanted was some extra power to break free of their {{Haunted House}}s.

''Shaman Blues'' is an UrbanFantasy novel by Aneta Jadowska and a SpinOff of her previous work, ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries''.

Throughout the first forty years of his life, cop Piotr Duszyński - called Witkacy by everyone, including himself - thought that his need to try one drug after another was just his self-destructive tendencies. Not really - as it turns out, he's a shaman, capable of contacting the dead and sending them away. This adds a whole new layer to his life, as he's now an official ghostbuster for the supernatural council running the magical underworld of his city, the ghosts can be malicious little things and [[TheMasquerade he can't tell his superiors about what he truly does]]. Things get even more complicated when his ex, now working in a local hospital, comes to him for help. The newborn children there are dying at an alarming rate, and there seems to be no natural explanation.

* AdvertisedExtra: The hospital ghost is featured fairly prominently on the cover (it's the one on the left), but in the story itself, he makes only three very brief appearances, one of which amounts to little more than a glimpse.

Throughout the first forty years of his life, cop Piotr Duszyński - called Witkacy by everyone, including himself - thought that his tendency to try one drug after another was just his self-destructive tendencies. Not really - as it turns out, he's a shaman, capable of contacting the dead and sending them away. This adds a whole new layer to his life, as he's now an official ghostbuster for supernatural council running the magical underworld of his city, the ghosts can be malicious little things and [[TheMasquerade he can't tell his superiors about what he truly does]]. Things get even more complicated when his ex, now working in a local hospital, comes to him for help. The newborn children there are dying at an alarming rate, and there seems to be no natural explanation.

* SuperpowerfulGenetics: [[spoiler:Witkoria inherited something of Witkacy's shamanism.]] Justified in that while magic genes are recessive, both parents have magic talents to some degree, though only one has fully-fledged powers.

* LukeYouAreMyFather: [[spoiler: "Baby chick", as Konstancja calls her, is Witkacy's daughter whom she's been from him for fifteen years.]]

* DaChief: Gardiasz, in a non-police version, has recently decided to keep much closer tabs at his agents (that is, shamans and other magical dealing with afterlife), which means he's eternally suspicious of Witkacy and wants him to "keep low".

* ElephantInTheRoom: The spirits that follow Gardiasz. They never speak and Witkacy doesn't know who they are and why they accompany lord of the afterlife. The one time he tried to ask Gardiasz about them, things got sour between the two of them and hasn't recovered as of yet.

* BigDamnHeroes: Vulture shows up at the last minute to save Witkacy from the Great Old Ones.

* MysteriusMist: It hides strange lights and the spiral that gives power.

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* TheAllegedCar: Wiktoria considers Witkacy's ride to be this, mostly due to his earlier run-in with the "gutsies". He defends it vehemently, though.

* YouthIsWastedForTheDumb: Invoked by the hospital ghost when he explains why it's only younger ghost who get power-high on the spiral, as he claims that they're young, stupid and impatient.

** Katia and Witkacy, apparently. He bears her no ill will, and she threatens to declare open war on Konstancja if the latter hurst him in any way.

* ContinuityNod: The events at the end of ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries'', with Dora upsetting the entire power structure of the Council, are why Gardiasz is going full DaChief on Witkacy.

* MindOverMatter: More powerful ghosts can interact with the mortal realm, which is implied to be more of their mind influencing things rather than them actually physically moving them, such as the ghost girl derailing cars with her mind.

** The title is a shout-out to Music/TheDoors song.

* AmicableExes: Definitely averted with Witkacy and Konstancja. While the latter wants to make amends, the former is still rather cold after the way she had left him. It morphs into this trope with time, though, and by the end they're a pretty well-working duo.

* RunningGag: Witkacy never misses opportunity to comment unfavourably on hospital security. It's terrible.

* AdultFear: You entrust your newborn child to your hospital's neonatal unit, only for it to be ''suffocated'' by a force you can't see, you can't stop and you don't understand. And by the time Konstancja goes to Witkacy, the ghost has already claimed three victims.

* TotallyRadical: Vulture's speech pattern, oddly endearing, given that he's a giant vulture spirit.

* TheReveal: Two.

* AmicableExes: Definitely averted with Witkacy and Konstancja. While the latter wants to make amends, the former is still rather cold after the way she had left him.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than its progenitor series. While Dora Wilk had {{hell}} and FantasticRacism, she also had really powerful allies, she lived in WorldOfBadass and aforementioned afterlife was a pretty pleasant place to be, all things considered. Here, the story opens with a ghost having already killed three newborn children, and the main character is under-trained, tired of life and with very little knowledge of the supernatural.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Spirits of dead people who for one reason or another remain "anchored" to physical realm (violent death is implied to be a factor). With time, they can amass more power from intense emotions around them, to the point that they can influence physical objects in MindOverMatter fashion. They're tied to the place of their death until they become powerful enough to break free of it.

* TheMasquerade: General public doesn't know about magic or ghosts, which is why Konstancja goes to Witkacy with her problem - she doubts regular police would help her.

* WouldHurtAChild: The ghost specifically targets newborns.

* ISeeDeadPeople: Shamans can see and interact with ghosts.

* WoudHurtAChild: The ghost specifically targets newborns.

* CrimeNoir: Witkacy's snarking aside, we've got a detective past his prime with a bunch of problems on his own, visited by his beautiful, but suspicious and troubled ex to get a mysterious job that's clearly more than meets the eye and can't be entrusted to the police. The story was clearly inspired by the genre.

* FemmeFatale: Witkacy compares Konstancja to one, noting that her looks and bearing make her seem like one of those deadly women from CrimeNoir.

** Witkacy mockingly notes that the situation at the start of the story looks more and more like some CrimeNoir film.