Murder on the Bath Express

Simon R. Green's new Ishmael Jones novel is actually pretty well written, although I was kind of sad that I was pretty sure on whodunit well before the reveal. Not that the red herrings weren't distracting enough, but....

Night Train to Murder takes a lot of inspiration from Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, even if the solution is different. It also takes place over roughly an hour or so, since Sir Dennis dies about 30 minutes into the express ride between Paddington Station and Bath. Sir Dennis is a rather unpopular British Politician, having not done much beyond shady dealings and influence peddling. He's recently been promoted to head of the Ministry of Defense's Psychic Division, and is headed First Class to Bath to take on the role. As such, The Organization sends Penny and Ishmael on the train to make sure he survives the trip, since the Organization would love to have the Division owe it a favor.

It doesn't work out that well, as Ishmael discovers Sir Dennis dead of a broken neck in a locked lavatory. The car behind first class is empty, and there are only four passengers in First class besides Penny and Ishmael, all of whom had hidden motives for wanting Sir Dennis dead, as well as a host of other reasons for being on the train acting suspiciously. We also have the Conductor and the lady selling snacks running around as the only ones who seem to be passing through cars.

In the end, Ishmael figures it out not long before the train enters Bath, and almost everyone gets a semi-happy ending.

As I said, half the reason I like these is that, unlike his over the top other series, this series acknowledges the hidden world, but it's at best flavor for very real, human killers and motivations.

Haunted Honeymoon

I remain amused at how well Simon R. Green's Ishmael Jones series manages to channel his cheeky, over the top writing into fun little cozy mysteries without delving into the complete oddity of his other series.

Till Sudden Death Do Us Part is more proof of this, as again, even if the supernatural may make an appearance, much like Scooby Doo, the monsters are all human.

We open on Ishmael and Penny enjoying a weekend together, even as Ishmael is dealing with his fear of the alien within him. A morning walk through SoHo brings the Colonel to their attention, as someone from Ishmael's shrouded past has called in a favor through their old employer to get Ishmael through his new employer to come help up on the moors.

A train ride to the middle of nowhere later, Ishmael and Penny are with Robert, who has the good sense to note that Ishmael has not aged at all in the intervening years. Robert, who's daughter is getting married, has a slight problem as the death of the local vicar is being blamed on his family curse, something about husbands marrying into the family dying on the wedding night due to a curse from the 18th century. Although the curse says nothing about the minister being hung from the bull rope. Or the maid of honor being suffocated in the top tier of the wedding cake, or a local reporter drowning in the baptismal font.

There are numerous suspects besides an invisible demon, and everyone involved has known each other since childhood, mostly. Indeed, it was like reading a cozy set in my hometown.

Anyway, while I figured out whodunnit about halfway through, there is a supernatural moment after the reveal, and a bit of silliness to end on.


Honestly, a fun read. Nothing particularly mind bending, but good.

There's a hole in the Bath

My first book of the New Year happened to be Simon R. Green's Murder in the Dark, the latest in his Ishmael Jones series, which as we found out recently is not part of his Drrod/Nightside universe, even if Black Heir is still present.

The major premise has to do with the Organization sending Penny and Ishmael to a site outside of Bath, where a hole has opened up. But not a normal hole. No, this one has razor sharp edges, no bottom, and doesn't actually have dimensions, as the scientists on site actually dug a tunnel under it that never intersected the hole.

As this is Ishmael, not long after they get there, people start winding up dead, cell phones have no signal, and Penny's car won't start. Despite the big interdimensional hole, we can be pretty sure something quite human is busy killing off the scientific team.

For such a short volume, it does contain a lot of stuff, including more clues into Ishmael's origins. On the other hand, the resolution to the mystery, while making sense also seems rather... unlikely. While the motive rings true, it really wouldn't play well in the real world, where less lethal methods that are just as vicious show up.

Fun read.

Remind me to take Cornwall off the bucket list

Ishmael Jones and his girlfriend Penny are back at it again in Into the Thinnest of Air by Simon R. Green. While a slim read at 162 pages, it does continue our maybe an alien's story in a fun way that has absolutely nothing to to do with British National Security, the Organization, or really much of Earth shattering import.

Which is a nice change.

Instead, we find Ishmael and Penny invited to a pre-opening dinner of an Inn in Black Rock Towen. Said Inn (The Castle) has a spotty reputation dating back at least to the Victorian era when the Inn was run by Tyrone, who poisoned all of his guests and was later lynched by the locals. Prior to that, the Castle had been built by smugglers as a fortress. In the more modern era, legends abound about the long dead and gone tree appearing in the mist on occasion.

While Penny is the one with the invite, she takes Ishmael along as her "plus one", since the new owners knew her father. The owners won the lottery and are having old friends for dinner. These include the town vicar and his wife, a local reporter, and a woman who has done lots of background research on the castle. However, right before dessert, the wife vanishes into thin air in the kitchen.

What follows is seven people becoming increasingly paranoid, dredging up old tales of interdimensional demons and pacts with the devil as one by one, their numbers vanish into thin air. In the end, only Penny and Ishmael remain standing, left to finally solve the mystery.

Sadly the resolution and the identity of the culprit aren't exactly groundbreaking and original, but it's a solid yarn nonetheless.

I'll be in Scotland afore ye...

So, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I somehow let one of Simon R. Green's Ishmael Jones mysteries slip through my radar. With Very Important Corpses being finished over lunch, I have now rectified this.

Again, unlike Nightside or Secret Histories or even Ghost Finders, this particular series is a lot less overpowered. I mean, yeah, Ishmael has some unique abilities, but for the most part, he's more like an alien Sherlock Holmes, only with a girlfriend.

In this case, the mysterious Organization sends Ishmael and Penny to Loch Ness and Coronach House to figure out who killed an agent at the meeting of the secretive Baphomet Group. (Said group basically controls the financial world. No real world domination, only money domination.)

Any rate, the agent in question died in a locked room and was dismembered. Indeed, her room was destroyed in the process. The Principles all have their own staff, escorts have been hired in for entertainment, and several security personnel are involved. Ah yes, and the Major Domo, who's much more concerned about the house than the people.

By the big reveal, we're down to 4 Principles left, and while the conclusion involves something paranormal, it's human malice that held the (figurative) gun in the end.

We also get clues the the Organization may not be all that "good" of an entity, and further confirmation that Ishmael and Penny are in the same shared multiverse as his other modern series.

While I enjoy his other series immensely, I hold this one in special regard, since it doesn't go over the top to quite the degree the others do. And honestly, I can't pass up a good cozy, particularly when even with a few gooses, it remains true to the spirit of British cozies.

Imhotep!

So, it seems I missed a book in Simon R. Green's Ishmael Jones series, but given these are stand alones much like Agatha Christie, not a big deal.

Any rate, Death Shall Come involves Ishmael and Penny joining the Colonel (also known as Stuart) at his in-laws estate where George Cardavan is unveiling his latest acquisition, the mummy of Cleopatra the First. The entire family will be there, from George's mother and in dementia father, his trophy wife, his kids and their spouses. And his resident Egyptologist, Dr. Rose. 

The mummy, of course, comes with a curse.

So when George shows up dead in a locked room with a missing mummy, you can bet everyone is thinking Boris Karloff walks among them.

And indeed, there are more than a few bodies that show up along the way, but, as is common for this series, The curse of the mummy has nothing to do with a supernatural curse. But we do get a glimpse at who Ishmael may have been before he became Ishmael. Which is in and of itself interesting.

Good locked room mystery, with an unusual solution.

Lock the doors, turn out the lights

So, I finished Simon R. Green's newest Ishmael Jones today, Dead Man Walking, while on lunch.

Much like the first one, there's no real connection to the bigger shared world he's created in his other series, just a maybe alien working for a nebulous organization known as "The Organization", and once again, said alien, Ishmael Jones, is solving a cozy.

In this case, Ishmael and his new girlfriend/partner Penny, are sent to the remote Ringstone Lodge, just south of Hadrian's Wall. The lodge is mostly a fortress, designed for off the record interrogations and the like.

The current guest of honor at the Lodge is one Frank Parker, someone who left the origanization to work for the opposition, and now wants to come back. Ishmael's job is to determine if Parker is who he says he is before a deal can be made. (Parker has had extensive identity corrections.)

The lodge is full of mostly unscrupulous characters, from the hired outside security to the dating interrogaters. Only two folks seem above reproach, MacKay, on loan from the ministry of defense and the only one with a master key, and the chief of electronic surveillance, Martin. 

Strange things are afoot at Ringstone Lodge. About half the characters, except for Ishmael, are convinced the place is haunted, likely by the witch buried in the family plot on the grounds. Hauntings straight of of Shirley Jackson abound, with phantom knocking and footsteps echoing down the halls at various intervals.

And then Parker winds up dead inside his locked cell.

From there is goes on in typical cozy fashion, as bodies appear then disappear, and the suspect get narrowed down.

While it is an engaging read, the identity of the murderer is fairly obvious although the motive isn't. Not quite sure his solution on how to murder someone in a locked room is an improvement over the old "use a rope to do and undo the latch", but it is what it is. And it does provide a pleasant change of pace from his usual chutzpah.

A nice quiet cozy

Many years ago, a Fangoria magazine review of The Dead Hate The Living started off by mentioning that a Full Moon title without the words "Puppet" or  "Toys" in it was a good sign. Which is kind of how I felt about finding a new Simon R. Green without one of his usual series names underneath it. (Not that I don't like his other series fiction, but it's always nice seeing something new coming from someone who tends to write series.)

The Dark Side of the Road introduces a new character, a new series, and while I assume it's part of the shared world inhabited by Nightside, The Droods, and the Carnaki Institue, they aren't exactly mentioned in this text. While the cheekiness factor is there in these new characters, it's not nearly as plucky as Green's other series. Which does make for a very nice departure from everything else of his. (Then again, this is book one, so lord knows what sharks are going to get jumped further down the line.)

We start by meeting Ishmael Jones, who starts the narration by echoing Melville. Ishmael works for an organization so secret, he only knows of it as The Organization. His boss and only contact with The Organization, known to him as the Colonel, calls Ishmael and asks him to join him at his family estate for the Christmas holiday. Ishmael is a bit disturbed by this, as he and the Colonel are mostly business. Ishmael also spends his life trying very hard to avoid being noticed. Some of that has to do with his work for Black Heir, the British organization responsible for dealing with illegal extraterrestrials. Given that as near as he can sort of remember, Ishmael is an extraterrestrial, leaving Black Heir became important when the new director took on the attitude of "Let's kill and vivisect everything!"

So, Ishmael ends up driving through blizzard white out conditions to reach The Colonel's family estate, Belcourt Manor. Once there, he meets the Colonel's (now known to him as James)
 father, mother, step mother, and half sister, as well as their dates, escorts, and business partners.

All of whom have axes to grind with each other.

And a missing Colonel.

James shows up about a third of the way through the narrative, buried in a snowman and missing his head. About which time we find the blizzard has cut off the Manor from the outside world, and the murderer must be among the guests.

Oh hey! We have ourselves a little slice of English cozy here! I can live with this!

To be fair, by the time we find out what's going on, some of the Green we all know is back, since the murderer has their own hidden abilities, but honestly, it's kind of nice to read a nice murder mystery without valkyries riding on pterodactyls.

I'll be interested to see where this one goes, and how long before it goes off the rails.