A Longer Fall, by Charlaine Harris (Saga)
An alternate 1920s
American South, complete with racial tensions, railroad travel, and
conventional roles for women, forms the backdrop for this delicious mystery/thriller/urban-fantasy/romance
in true Charlaine Harris style.
Lizbeth Rose is a
gunnie, a hired gun, and she’s part of a crew who have been employed to transport
a mysterious, crated object and in the process prevent anyone from stealing it.
Their method of transportation is railroad, and it comes as no surprise that
the train is sabotaged, resulting in much bloodshed, and in the wreckage that
follows, the leader of the crew, badly wounded but holding on to the box, is
murdered.
Lizbeth teams up with an old flame, Eli Savarov, a magic-wielding “grigori”
wizard otherwise in service to the Holy Russian Empire. They’re forced to
remain in the town of Sally, Louisiana, until the box is recovered and the
mystery solved. Step by step, they are drawn deeper into the layers of
oppression, from the social pressure on Lizbeth to dress and behave like a
submissive woman to the casual lynching of blacks.
The first person
narrative echoes the “Sookie Stackhouse” novels in tone and diction, but that
is part of their charm. Both Lizbeth and Sookie convey savvy, sass, and depth
of emotion in deceptively simple language. They’re not the same character,
however, and neither are they the author, who demonstrates her deep
understanding of Southern American culture with all its shadows and strengths.
A fast-paced,
engaging read with quirky world-building and compelling characters that left me
hungry for the next installment.
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