Death Shall Come

January 1, 2017
Ishmael Jones, a space alien who never ages and whose secret weapon for solving problems is punching, investigates brutal, potentially supernatural attacks in an isolated Scottish manor house.Jones works for the Organization, which is so shadowy that not even he knows its history or purpose. He's accompanied by his girlfriend and partner, Penny Belcourt, who apparently exists only to flatter Jones and have things explained to her. The Organization has sent them to a haunted mansion on the banks of Loch Ness, where the Baphomet Group, an international cabal of 12 of the world's wealthiest people, is having its annual meeting of unspecified racketeering and collusion (not to be confused with the Illuminati, which is obviously the crackbrained product of a laughable conspiracy theory). The Organization doesn't care about financial manipulations but for some reason does care that one of the manipulators might have been killed and replaced with a doppelganger. And they definitely care that the first agent they sent to investigate was killed. Jones arrives at the manor, punches a dozen bodyguards, insults the staff and the entire Baphomet Group, and only then turns to examining the body and the scene of the crime. The carnage suggests an attack by some creature, but the only possible motives are human. Jones breaks up a gun battle among the security guards with more punching, explores a secret tunnel while most of the Baphomet Group plus five prostitutes are slaughtered, and then, in the climactic battle, punches the killer to death. Green (Dead Man Walking, 2016, etc.) presents a lightweight mystery featuring incoherent worldbuilding, pathetically childish attempts at machismo, and a glaringly obvious solution. Juvenile schlock.

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September 1, 2017

lshmael Jones and partner Penny have been summoned to George Cardavan's country home, where he maintains the world's largest private collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts. The discovery of a body next to an empty sarcophagus, followed by more mysterious deaths, forces the duo to identify the culprit (human or otherwise) before they are also consumed by the murderous force at work. This fourth series adventure (after Very Important Corpses) is fast-paced, entertaining, and genre-bending.--ACT

Copyright 2017 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.)

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.