I finished Kat Richardson's Greywalker last night. I liked it
quite a bit. It's about a female PI, Harper Blaine, who dies
for two minutes. Following her revival, she finds she can see
beyond the veil and must deal with the occult, as its
denizens seek out this investigator who walks in both the day
and night worlds. Richardson does a particularly good job of
handling Blaine's problem with accepting this gift she wishes
she could return, first just accepting its existence, then
being able to work within her new consciousness. This life
change also makes more acceptable something that has come to
bother me in some PI books, how a whole cast will come
together from scratch in a novel, particularly a debut. The
loner PI will become involved in one or often two cases
(which will eventually intertwine, of course), but at the
same time will become involved with a whole cast of people,
including a romantic interest, some of whom will become
series regulars. That synchronicity often bugs me. But here
it makes sense, as Blaine seeks out people who can help her
make sense of her new state, people she never would have had
contact with before.
The books still has a few first novel bugs (could have been
trimmed just a bit), but the first novel excitement more than
makes up for them. I'll definitely be going on to the second
in the series.
The book also got me started thinking about other series that
overlap the hardboiled and occult worlds, especially loner
investigators who bridge the two worlds. I'm thinking of
series like George Chesbro's Mongo series, or shows like
Forever Knight, Reaper, the earlier (and far darker, more
serious, wish it would come out on DVD) Brimstone, some
Angel, though much of it takes place only in the occult
world. That last reservation would also rule out Charlie
Huston's Joe Pike series. As much as I enjoy it, it's almost
entirely set in the politics of the world of vampires, even
if that world is used to satirize the real world.
But I'm not very familiar with horror and/or fantasy books,
so I was wondering if there are any other recommended series
where an investigator works on both sides of these mean
streets? For example, I saw a series by Lilith Saintcross
(gee, wonder if that's a pseudonym) featuring Dante
Valentine, the Devil's bounty hunter. They have really cool
covers, but I seem to remember the recently departed Bo
Diddley warning me about judging a book by its cover. Are
they any good? Any other recommendations?
Mark
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