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kittiwakeThe third and fourth books in the Nightside series, which is now my favourite urban fantasy series.
Nightingale's Lament
In the end, it all came down to her singing. I'd have to come back again, watch her perform, listen to what she did with her voice. see what it did to her audience. After taking certain precautions, of course. Certain defences. There are any number of magical creatures, mostly female, whose singing can bring about horror and death. Sirens, undines, banshees, Bananarama tribute bands . . .
After solving a case of sabotage at the Prometheus electricity generating plant, John Taylor is trying to keep a low profile, since Walker, the representative of the Authorities who run the Nightside, is not pleased about the power blackouts his actions have caused. But as usual he gets himself into more trouble with his next case, when he is hired by the father of a singer called Rossignol, to find out if she is being coerced by her management and whether her singing really is causing a spate of suicides among her fans. Not as exciting as "Agents of Light and Darkness", the previous book in the series.
Hex and the City
However, when you work as a private investigator in the Nightside, that hidden magical heart of London, where gods and monsters walk side by side, and sometimes attend the same self-help groups, some cases almost inevitably lead you to the most unpleasant places. The head auctioneer of the Nightside's Great Auction Hall hired me to stand watch over one particularly contentious auction, to keep the bidders in line, which should have been a warning. Nothing's ever straight forward in my life.
A lot of questions raised in the earlier books of the series are answered in this book. It is the first in a three book story arc, concerning the identities of John Taylor's inhuman mother and the enemies that have been trying to kill him since he was a child, as well as the nature of the faceless entities known as the Harrowing.
After being keeping an eye on the auctioning of a very special butterfly (and yes, it is that butterfly), John Taylor is hired by Lady Luck to investigate the origin of the Nightside and the identity of his mother, and a lot of people seem determined to prevent him from succeeding. With the oldest Powers and Dominations of the Nightside reduced to guessing her identity, I decided to have a go too, and one of my half a dozen guesses was actually correct.
Nightingale's Lament
In the end, it all came down to her singing. I'd have to come back again, watch her perform, listen to what she did with her voice. see what it did to her audience. After taking certain precautions, of course. Certain defences. There are any number of magical creatures, mostly female, whose singing can bring about horror and death. Sirens, undines, banshees, Bananarama tribute bands . . .
After solving a case of sabotage at the Prometheus electricity generating plant, John Taylor is trying to keep a low profile, since Walker, the representative of the Authorities who run the Nightside, is not pleased about the power blackouts his actions have caused. But as usual he gets himself into more trouble with his next case, when he is hired by the father of a singer called Rossignol, to find out if she is being coerced by her management and whether her singing really is causing a spate of suicides among her fans. Not as exciting as "Agents of Light and Darkness", the previous book in the series.
Hex and the City
However, when you work as a private investigator in the Nightside, that hidden magical heart of London, where gods and monsters walk side by side, and sometimes attend the same self-help groups, some cases almost inevitably lead you to the most unpleasant places. The head auctioneer of the Nightside's Great Auction Hall hired me to stand watch over one particularly contentious auction, to keep the bidders in line, which should have been a warning. Nothing's ever straight forward in my life.
A lot of questions raised in the earlier books of the series are answered in this book. It is the first in a three book story arc, concerning the identities of John Taylor's inhuman mother and the enemies that have been trying to kill him since he was a child, as well as the nature of the faceless entities known as the Harrowing.
After being keeping an eye on the auctioning of a very special butterfly (and yes, it is that butterfly), John Taylor is hired by Lady Luck to investigate the origin of the Nightside and the identity of his mother, and a lot of people seem determined to prevent him from succeeding. With the oldest Powers and Dominations of the Nightside reduced to guessing her identity, I decided to have a go too, and one of my half a dozen guesses was actually correct.
