by Terrance Mc Arthur

Details on how to win a copy of The Shadow of the Soul at the end of this post.

Cass Jones is a British police detective and he has dealt with the otherworldly Mr. Bright’s economy-controlling associates in the past. Now, he must deal with disasters on an international terrorism scale– and something unusual.

Bombings in London by identical terrorists are one thing, but suicides of young people– tied together by the phrase “chaos in the darkness”–are another thing. That’s Sarah Pinborough’s The Shadow of the Soul, the second volume of a trilogy known by two names: The Forgotten Gods (in the USA) and the Dog-Faced Gods (in Great Britain).

Cass is tenacious, relentless and doesn’t settle for the easy answers. Messages from the grave tell him that some of the things he thought he knew were wrong and his search for answers cause friction at work. Of course, uncovering illegal activities at a major police precinct put a spotlight of fame on him, while it also made him a target of hate.

Mr. Bright would be happy to leave the planet he is secretly running and he’s trying to find something beyond the “chaos in the darkness.” His empire isn’t running as smoothly as he would like, with members of his crew running down, running out and jockeying for power positions. Abigail Porter is a bodyguard for the British prime minister, but she’s seeing one person in many places and it bothers her that she can accept it.

There are unpleasant things happening, unpleasant people and beings doing these things, and the solutions aren’t all that pleasant either. Pinborough paces well, and she knows how to trowel on the grossness when it fits, while she keeps things slightly askew from the expected.

This isn’t a typical police procedural mystery, because there are alternate-present qualities. It’s not the usual science-fiction, because it’s not an amazing future world. Its most things are the way they always are…if you happen to be a conspiracy theorist who believes in secret manipulators pulling the strings in the government and the economy. As for horror, you manage to forget about that element until something happens that makes you want to shut your eyes…but you don’t do that because you want to keep reading, reading, reading, reading…

Check out more fantasy & horror book reviews in our fantasy and fangs section.

To enter to win a copy of Shadow of the Soul, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Shadow,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen October 12, 2013. U.S. residents only.

Use this link to purchase the book & a portion goes to help keep KRL going:

Terrance V. Mc Arthur is a California-born, Valley-raised librarian/entertainer/writer. He lives in Sanger, four blocks from the library, with his wife, his daughter, and a spinster cat.