Walpurgis Night is for shagging, Satan summoning, and shooting.
The behind the scenes antagonist from the first novel, Walter Grobius returns. His rapidly deteriorating health and a full moon on this particular occasion have led him to hire a powerful black wizard named Pardee. For a deal with the devil, of course. Eternal youth, etc. Filthy rich already.
To do so, murders of children and removal of organs continues for part of the ritual – and this again draws the attention of FBI agent Fenton and his partner, who happens to be one of Libby Chastain’s sister witches.
Mr Quincey Morris gets involved himself when someone attempts to kill Libby, and they set out to try and work out why.
Luckily they have a few sources of advice and assistance. Wizard, Harry Dresden and his hangout, supernatural expert Frank Black, and a monster hunter named Hannah Widmark – the Widowmaker. One hardboiled dressed in black badarse monsterfragger. Vampires, servants of satan, black wizards, to her they all need shooting. That is what she is, a shooter, and what you’d call her if say, she worked for a more usual organisation. She favours twin Colt .45 automatics. A preference taught to her by one shadowy figure named Cranston, determined to train her to weed out bitter fruit, supernatural or otherwise.
It seems that there is past history tied up in this, and relationships between Quincey, Libby, Hannah, Pardee and others come to light and have bearing on what is going on, and what happens to the protagonists.
Not quite as good as the first book, perhaps because of a broadening of focus and scope away from Morris and Chastain, but still a good book overall. The cover is actually relevant to the story, too.
It is very rare to have a male/female hero pairing of friends and equals equals who the author does not desperately or deliberately want to have shag. Blaise and Garvin, Steed and Peel, Mulder and Scully and… err… So let’s hope it continues, as those examples are some of the best stories ever.
Also an excerpt from the next book included. Always a good idea where possible.
4 out of 5
