In a Place of Darkness, by Stuart MacBride.

 

            Angus MacVicar, on his first day on the job as a newly-promoted Detective Constable, is fizzing with anticipation and enthusiasm, especially as a serial-killer seems to be targeting his Scottish home city of Oldcastle. In fact, the murders are so similar in their brutality and deviousness that a renowned FBI forensic psychologist has been called in to give his esteemed advice – Oldcastle will be famous!  Or infamous, depending upon how you look at such things.  Regardless, it’s a new day for Angus, and it gets even better when he learns that he will be meeting the FBI Expert at the Airport and accompanying him to his very posh(for Oldcastle) hotel, then to meet all of Angus’s BigWig bosses.

            In an ideal world.  The first shock for Angus is that Dr Jonathan Fife suffers from a form of dwarfism and is 4ft 5inches tall. As Angus is pushing 6’6” he feels somehow at a disadvantage:  surely someone could have let him know! But what would such knowledge gain?  That’s right:  sweet FA.  And Dr Fife is not thrilled to be in Bonnie Scotland, either, in fact he hates everything about it:  the weather (always raining), the food, the accents, the dead-loss policing, and the complete lack of computer skills employed by so-called police experts.  No wonder this guy is literally getting away with murder every time – it’s almost impossible not to!  The Press have baptised the killer The Fortnight Killer because a new horribly tortured body has turned up every two weeks and the corpse’s partner disappears, never to be seen again:  surely Dr Fife with all his expertise could contribute valuable insights, instead of bitching and moaning about everything, to the extent that Angus has been delegated as his Minder and driver and Anything Else You’d Like, Sir, because Angus is lowly.  And new. 

            And getting very sick of sarcastic, loudmouth little shortarses – until he realises that behind all the bluster and smartassery is a mind like a steel trap, keenly analytical and not afraid to follow investigative paths which initially seem to lead nowhere – until they reveal all at the end of the tunnel.

            And it goes without saying that death waits at the end of the tunnel, too, unless the unlikely Dynamic Duo of MacVicar and Fife can change the outcome, in the best tradition of all of MacBride’s excellent crime novels. He is superb at combining dark humour and violence;  his characters are all entirely credible, and he writes of his environment with affection and honesty.  (it never stops raining!)  And it would be great if these two singular characters are the start of a new series – sure hope so!  FIVE STARS.       

 

Fangs for Nothing, by Steffanie Holmes.

 

            Lord Alaric Valerian has a problem:  his imperious mother is coming to visit his castle and will be appalled at the mess his various artistic endeavours have created;  his butler Reginald advises him to employ for a short time one  of those 21^st century ‘unclutterers’ who managed to ruthlessly weed out what one doesn’t need and tastefully display what one does.  The only snag with that plan is that Lord Alaric has been a vampire for several hundred years – he sleeps during the day and stays awake all night.  He literally cannot stand sunlight; it’s liable to burn him to a very unattractive frazzle, so working with the human Unclutterer will present myriad different problems – but none so dire as his mother’s reaction to his hoarding addiction:  she wants to hold a ball at the castle, inviting all the others of their kind (their numbers are higher than you would think, in fact one vampire property entrepreneur has started developing a very exclusive enclave in the village adjoining Alaric’s castle) and her rage would be incendiary if she saw it buried in all his clutter. 

            So.  A human Unclutterer it is.  Enter Winifred Preston, Unclutterer Supreme, with the scars to prove it:  her mother is a Hoarder with a PHD in rubbish;  consequently, Winnie is obsessively neat and a champion at discarding that which is unnecessary to one’s immediate environment:  she’s the girl for the job, alright – until she meets her future boss unexpectedly and in awkward circumstances, as he chivalrously helps her ward off a creep at the local pub:  a kiss is exchanged and the groundwork is laid for Red Hot Romance.

            Well, of course it is!  This is a Cozy Vampire Romance, after all, but what fun it is keeping up with all the great characters, especially the Nevermore Book Club et al, a group of ladies whom Winnie befriends as much to find out info about her new employer (who keeps very odd hours!) as to make new friends.  It takes Winnie some time before she realises what kind of unique person Alaric actually is, and by that time she is totally enamoured of him (he’s not just astoundingly handsome;  he also has a heart of gold – and a sense of humour!)  She can’t go wrong.  Except that his mum doesn’t like her and there have been several attacks on the locals lately, causing much fear and concern:  are they random one-offs, or is there a serial killer operating in the village?

            No-one is any the wiser at story’s end, so all Ms Holmes’s fans (and they are legion) are fervently hoping there will be a book two – the sooner the better – especially as Ms Holmes is a great successor to all the Vampire authors who came before her - and she’s very, very funny.  And don’t we need fun to distract us in our reading these days!  FIVE STARS.

 

The Listeners, by Maggie Stiefvater.

 

            December 7^th, 1941:  the American Naval Base at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbour has been bombed by the Japanese and, whether American citizens like it or not, they are now fighting in the Second World War.  What to do with the Axis Diplomats and their families and staff members who have enjoyed very comfortable residency as their country’s representatives up until now:  Germany, Italy and the Japanese legation are not allowed to ‘go home’, however much citizens would want them to, for American diplomats in the Axis countries have been similarly detained but in the interests of strict neutrality, Swiss diplomats make certain that each country’s representatives are treated fairly, right down to the books they are permitted to read weekly (one each) – and how many newspapers they can see weekly (one each). 

            The State Department is in charge of all the day-to-day logistics and has recruited several FBI Special Agents to ‘assist’, a euphemism for spying and listening-in wherever possible to various conversations in various languages;  to say that their destination – a luxurious West Virginia mountain hotel – will be onerous and boring is utter nonsense, especially when the G-men encounter the attractive and always obliging staff:  yes, this is definitely an assignment with a difference, but!

            War has intruded on the Avallon, the beautiful Appalachian hotel selected to house all the fine enemy diplomats, and Manager June Hudson must be host to all three hundred of them, a task that doesn’t faze her for her training by the Gilfoyle family who own the hotel has been extensive and thorough;  she expects the minimum of trouble from her illustrious guests and in the main they fulfil her expectations – until the 10 year-old daughter of one of the German diplomats has a screaming fit one day and is quickly sedated by one of his friends.  It is later revealed that the little girl will be euthanized when she returns to Germany, as is usual with anyone with mental problems. Or anyone with a disability.  Something must be done, and soon, for the detainees are expecting to be sent back to their various countries by the State Department, just as soon as their own representatives are sent home.

            Yes, something must be done, but what?  And when?

Ms Stiefvater has a beautiful writing style, revealing gradual facts about her characters rather than too much information too quickly;  her love for the area of which she writes is palpable and makes one wish that we could all revel in such unspoiled beauty.  She also doesn’t hold back on the poverty and sadness that ruled mountain people’s lives at that time and her many and varied characters are all a pleasure to meet – even the bad guys!  And there are many of them, many who steadfastly look away, too – the ‘Nothing-to-do-with Me ‘ club.  It’s up to June to change their minds.  FIVE STARS.