Short Book Reviews: A Steamy Vampire Werewolf Mystery

 Blood of the Pack (Dark Ink Tattoo Book One), by Cassie Alexander (Caskara Press)

My introduction to the works of Cassie Alexander was the “Nightshifted” series (in which a nurse discovers a new career path in a secret hospital ward for supernatural patients). I loved how she handled nonhuman characters, great dramatic tension, and smooth prose. So I picked up this first book in a new series without knowing much about it beyond the lots-of-queer sex content warnings. I found many of the elements I’d previously enjoyed, including characterization and great action sequences. The sex scenes were better done than usual for “high heat” stories. There was a nice balance in tension between a satisfying landing level for the first novel in a series on the one hand, and enough of a cliff-hanger so the reader will be left hungry for the next. My personal quibble, and other readers may feel quite differently, was that the sex scenes took up a disproportionate amount of space for what they contributed to the plot. I think this has to do with what different readers look for. If it’s a (in this case) action-mystery with sex scenes that enhance that plot, or if it’s very juicy sex scenes that make sense in terms of character and motivation. As I said, the scenes are very well done, great examples of how to write literate, well-paced intimate encounters. I especially liked the depiction of consent, the mutuality of pleasure, and the care of the partners for one another.

And of course, if that sex comes with vampire and werewolves, oh my, so much the better.

Book Reviews: Magical London, Three Views

What Abigail Did That Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch (Subterranean)

Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch (DAW)

Best Thing You Can Steal, by Simon R. Green (Severn House)

I very much suspect that one night, Simon R. Green, Charles Stross, and Ben Aaronovitch met in a pub, got drunk together, and started telling tall tales about creepy things happening in London. Stross’s “Laundry Files” novels center on a secret agency tasked with keeping Lovecraftian Elder Gods in check. In Aaronovitch’s “Rivers of London,” waterways ancient and modern possess spirits, foxes have their own security forces, and a not-so-secret agency investigates supernatural crimes. Elsewhere I’ve reviewed some of the “Laundry Files” novels (they’re terrific fun, so check them out if you haven’t already).

My introduction to Aaronovitch’s enchanted London was reading Lies Sleeping and What Abigail Did That Summer simultaneously. It wasn’t intentional, but it turned out brilliantly. In the former, police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant investigates an ongoing mystery from the agency’s headquarters, “The Folly.” This is actually well into the series, which I didn’t realize, and there’s a massive amount of backstory, but I found that just hanging out with Peter was vastly entertaining. Really, a summer evening picnic, trying to get the spirit of Old Father Thames to remember where King Arthur left his sword? Delicious fun! Abigail of What Abigail Did That Summer is Peter’s cousin, and her own adventure took place back in 2018. Missing kids, a seriously psychotic haunted house, and a security detail provided by talking foxes were just a few of the marvels. Then Abigail appears in Lies Sleeping as an extraordinarily perceptive student, which makes sense given what she went through years ago. It’s no wonder the magical bosses insisted she receive proper training!

And then there’s Green’s Best Thing You Can Steal, which features a thief and con man extraordinaire, going under an assumed name. He specializes in stealing things like a ghost's clothes or a photo from a country that never existed. Now he’s after a television set that shows the future and that most delicious of prizes, revenge against “the worst man in the world.” He’s put together a team that includes a ghost who remembers being human, a man wearing the armor of the angels he’s slaughtered, the possibly human embodiment of random luck, and his ex-girlfriend, who can make technology fall in love with her. Armed with a ballpoint pen that can stop time and a skeleton key that can open any lock, not to mention their special talents and wits, he and his team go up against poltergeist attack dogs, golem guards, shaped curses, and a villain who can foresee their every move.

Each of these books is fast-paced, chock-full of inventive imagination and quirky characters. They also share a blend of off-beat bad guys, love for London and the English language, and humor that strikes me, as an American, as quintessentially British. Which is not to say they share a setting, magical systems, or histories, because each is as individual as the thoroughly skillful author who created it, only that if you enjoyed one you’ll likely find delight in the others.

Short Book Reviews: Kelley Armstrong's Time-travel-Victorian-haunted-house-mystery-romance

A Stitch in Time, by Kelley Armstrong (Subterranean Press)

The author describes A Stitch in Time as a “time-travel-Victorian-haunted-house-mystery-romance,” and it hits all the right notes. History professor Bronwyn inherits the Gothic manor where she lived as a child, and as a summer project embarks upon its renovation. As a child, she was able to step into the manor’s past, where she befriended William, the next heir, until present-day adults decided she was mentally ill and locked her up. So her return is fraught with memories – was William real? – and ghosts that seem to be attempting to communicate with her. Although she’s reluctant to accept it, the time “stitch” keeps returning her to William’s time. So many years have now gone by, and yet the old affection quickly blossoms into something more. Or would, if the ghosts weren’t increasingly importunate. Someone was murdered in William’s time – but who was the victim? And who did it? The more deeply Bronwyn searches, the more dangerous the secrets she uncovers.

All these elements are handled with such superb skill and pacing that I kept turning the pages long after I should have turned out my light. I’m a sucker for a good love story, but when it comes packaged with tantalizing mystery and the wisdom of older-and-wiser characters, the result was a highly satisfying time-travel-and-so-forth adventure.

Short Book Reviews: A Female Sorceress Sherlock Holmes

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, by Alexis Hall (Ace)

A delicious mash-up of Sherlock Holmes (Shaharazad Hass, with her companion, alchemist and military veteran Captain John Wyndham), Lovecraftian mythos, Dracula, and The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers.  Shaharazad Hass, a consulting detective as well as sorceress, accepts a commission from an old flame, who is threatened with blackmail unless she breaks off her engagement. The list of possible enemies is long, but as Shaharazad and John focus on the most likely suspects, one after the other is eliminated, including the vampire Contessa, another of Shaharazad’s many, many ex-lovers. I found the prose delightful in its replication of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s narrative, transported into a world of magic, demons, mind-altering drugs, and a sideways-in-time journey into the mysterious, menacing world of Chambers’s Carcosa and The King in Yellow. Weird and shiveringly wonderful reading!

Short Book Reviews: Murder Mystery Set in a Magical High School

Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey (Tor)

In short: now I know why readers have been raving about Sarah Gailey.

In long: this tale begins as a murder mystery set in an exclusive, 

private high school for the magically gifted. The first-person narrator is a private detective who’s wearied of digging into cases of infidelity and embezzlement, and both excited and intimidated by her first murder investigation. So much is not all that astonishingly new territory. But this is where the story gets complex. Ivy is an unreliable narrator, whose unerring sense of the truth shines through her layers of self-deception, guilt, and inadequacy. To make matters worse, Ivy’s brilliant, charismatic, and magically talented sister teaches at the school and was romantically involved with the murder victim.

The unfolding of the mystery parallels Ivy’s exploration of her own past, her relationship to her sister, and who she herself might have been “in another life,” if she and her sister had been close, if she had been magical, if she had gone to a good school, if she were attractive and confident, and so forth. The line between Ivy’s wishful imagination and the possibility that she is in the process of unlocking hidden potential is ambivalent, as it should be, making Ivy a complex and utterly sympathetic character. This subtlety arises from superb narrative skill and deep insight into the human psyche, all within the framework of a fascinating familiar-but-new magical world, all the agonies of revisiting high school, and a murder mystery full of twists and surprises.

Strongly recommended.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to praise it. Although chocolates and fine imported tea are always welcome.

Short Book Reviews: A New Pathfinder Tale

Gears of Faith (Pathfinder Tales) by Gabrielle Harbowy (Tor)

One of the tests of a shared world is how accessible the stories are to a reader who is a stranger to that world. Pathfinder is an extremely popular fantasy role-playing game (along the lines of Dragons and Dungeons, for non-gamers like me). There’s a wealth of material about the various landscapes, races, characters, and histories of the world, and a series of novels (over 30 of them) set in it. This current addition includes a glossary and maps to aid the unfamiliar traveler. 

The set-up is this: two characters (Keren, a knight dedicated to the goddess Iomedae, who incidentally was once human; and Zae, a violet-haired gnome who is both a fanatic tinkerer-inventor-engineer and a mystical healer; oh, and also incidentally, they are both female and are lovers) arrive in the great city of Absalom to continue their respective training, only to find themselves caught up in a series of increasingly violent attacks that center on the theft of a supernatural device. The story weaves together mystery, action, romance, with the question of the proper balance between trusting one’s sense of what is right and obedience to a higher authority. Pacing allows the newcomer to explore this colorful world while falling in love with the characters, yet there is sufficient drama and escalating tension to keep a familiar reader turning the pages.  

My favorite parts were the scenes of Zae in her engineering classes, with lively dialogs with her fellow students (of various races and temperaments) and the inevitable results of her fearless curiosity. Her mount, a large dog named Appleslayer, adds warmth to the family. Plus, it’s very cool to have a dog as a companion on a quest.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book as a gift; everything I've said about it is my own opinion and no one paid me to say nice things; are you happy now, FTC?