THE UNNATURAL INQUIRER
A Novel of the Nightside
by Simon R. Green
The magical noir subgenre has become very crowded lately, but Green claims his own enjoyably edgy piece of it with this eighth Nightside novel (Hell to Pay, 2006, etc.), set in a perpetually dark corner of London inhabited by gods, demons and other less savory denizens.
Private investigator John Taylor, possessed of a magical gift that allows him to find just about anything, accepts the infamous tabloid the Unnatural Inquirer as a client. Accompanied by adorable half-demon reporter Bettie Divine, he is tasked with locating Pen Donavon, who offered the Inquirer exclusive rights to a DVD that allegedly contains proof of the Afterlife—and then disappeared. Unfortunately, someone is blocking Taylor’s gift. Can Taylor still find Donavon before one of several interested parties gets to him first? Taylor is great fun. Unlike some other noir PIs, he isn’t perpetually getting kicked to the curb. To the contrary, he refuses to take guff from anyone, and he has the power (or at least the sinister reputation) to back him up.
A dryly humorous, darkly quirky vacation from mundane reality.