The Dark Side of the Road

March 9, 2015
Veteran SF and fantasy author Green (Shadows Fall) introduces an unusual hard-boiled detective, Ishmael Jones (“Call me Ishmael”), in this brisk, breezy first in a new mystery series set in England. Jones’s boss, “the Colonel,” summons him to Belcourt Manor for a “personal favor” during the Christmas holidays. Jones drives from London through a blinding snowstorm to the manor, where he meets Jeeves, the butler, and the Colonel’s family and guests. Jones pays careful attention to the personal and professional troubles of this dysfunctional group, and his heightened senses soon indicate something foul is afoot. Once the occupants of Belcourt Manor are snowed in and phoneless, corpses start piling up. Convincing supernatural twists, witty chapter titles, and flirtations between Jones and the Colonel’s flinty stepsister, Penny, more than offset the book’s few didactic lapses. Jones is most engaging when he smells blood, and readers will be anxious for a sequel.

Starred review from May 1, 2015

Ishmael Jones is an agent for the Colonel, who heads an ultrasecret British intelligence agency. Invited down to the Colonel's family manor in Cornwall for the Christmas holidays, Ishmael travels through a ferocious (almost unnatural) winter storm to arrive at a traditional English house party, except his host is nowhere to be found. When the Colonel's body is discovered the next day buried in a snowman, Ishmael interviews the other guests to find the culprit. And then, other bodies turn up as the guests are picked off one by one. Secrets swim beneath the surface of this story that masquerades as an Agatha Christie-style country house mystery, not the least of which is Ishmael's true identity. VERDICT A new book from Green is always a treat for sf and urban fantasy fans, because they know that in his fictional worlds things are never quite what they seem until it's too late. His first foray into more traditional crime fiction (albeit with an otherworldy flavor) will delight mystery readers, especially those who relish a bit of genre blending. It also offers a wonderfully creepy new path for Green's devotees to pursue as he wraps up the "Eddie Drood" and "Nightside" series.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
Genre-blending author Green (Tales from the Nightside, 2015) introduces another wisecracking protagonist, Ishmael Jones, who has been summoned by his boss, known only as the Colonel, to join him for Christmas at the Colonel's family estate. Given that the Colonel hires him to investigate odd events, it can only be assumed that something odd is, as the British would say, afoot. So Jones arrives at a country house in the middle of a winter storm and becomes snowed in with an eccentric cast of characters and . . . a dead body. Green has a great deal of fun putting an extraordinary detective in such a classic mystery setting. You see, Ishmael Jones is, most likely, an alien. His memories are spotty, but they start in 1963, and he hasn't aged a day since. He has supernatural senses and his blood is gold, so he's definitely not human. Just exactly what he is and where he's from remain mysterious, lending a slightly ominous note to an otherwise lighthearted, supernatural romp. Fans of the British TV series Torchwood will enjoy the irreverent, otherworldly protagonist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)