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Haunting the Nightside

John Taylor is a private eye working the mean streets of this shady netherworld. His latest case, finds out why the local songstress, Rossignol, has estranged herself from friends and family, and why are her fans topping themselves? There’s no rest for the wicked though as he must then find out the truth about the origin of the Nightside and exactly how it relates to the true identity of his mother.

Haunting the Nightside is the second omnibus edition in the Nightside series by Simon R. Green combining the stories “Nightingale’s Lament” and “Hex and the City”. And likewise I do with omnibus editions I will write up the reviews about each book separately.

With already the thirds and fourth books of this series, I’ll just briefly say what the Nightside series is about. Imagine the dark streets of London times a 100fold and your still not quite there yet! The Nightside, a place of supernatural presences in the heart of London. Its always night in the Nightside. Its always three o’clock in the morning, and the dawn never comes. The series focuses on John Taylor who recently returned to the Nightside and is now working as a private eye. He is held with certain regards and is despised by others. We already saw him solving some bizarre cases in the first two books and also saw his past catching up on it! Lets see how it unfolds in the third and fourth books...

Nightingale’s Lament

Nightingales Lament is the third story of the Nightside series. Its predecessor Agents of Light and Darkness left this story open with a lot of premise. On one hand he had a crazy bout about the Unholy Grail and several events in it led to revealing a lot of John past with his mother. The references that John might be more were slowly building up.

Though Nightingale’s Lament starts of pretty much with the same scene that I was used to based on the first two books. John taking on a job and using his special power, his Third Eye, to find stuff. The definition of “finding” things can be taken rather broadly, he uses it not only for missing persons, but during some nasty fighting scenes he manages to employ this power this own advantage, which was pretty neat to see. But back to the story. He is tasked to find out a saboteur for a power plant, with this job being solved pretty quickly he is now open in accepting a new job. And that is finding out what happened to Rossingol, a famous singer.

Now I did like this story but in terms of taking the Nightside story further it did not quite manage to do just that. It seems more that this important case with the Rossingol was more a side quest or mission that had to be completed because. There are quite some new turns in the investigation that causes John to have to rethink strategy and in the it is just as witty, as the other in solving the case but I missed something to make it truly come alive. Though Nightingale’s Lament can be classified as a case file there are a few twists here and there as John delves deeper and deeper.

However that is the storyline alone. What I did like about Nightingale’s Lament is the characters! They are just some oddities from the first row. It felt like Simon R. Green wanted to introduce more of the eerie and bizarre Nightside world in this story. Now there was already a good baseline for John character, what he does and how he does it, his possible future etc. Well he sticks to it and his comments are pretty funny to read about as well as his tactics. Other characters that have been introduced so far that helped John in his investigations were Shotgun Suzie and Razor Eddie. Now we are introduced to another “case” Dead Boy an 17 year old boy how it eternally dead and cannot die. Next to the characters this book more focuses on, I think, building up the world of the Nightside and showing still more of the endless possibilities that lie within the Nightside.

Nightingale’s Lament is a good addition in the Nightside series but felt that it just missed something compared to its two predecessors. I expected a more follow-up on the second book with John past and present. Still for all the Urban Fantasy fans out there, this is good book and great to indulge yourself in.

Just a note: Condiments, never leave home without them!

Hex and the City

Hex and the City is the fourth book of the series. After finishing Nightingale’s Lament I actually had no clue of how this story would pick up. The series does fully live up to its name, you never know what is possible in the Nightside.

Ok, an auction. Wasn’t expecting that. John has to guard a precious piece for an auction. A chaos butterfly. Of course this item strikes the attention of many players. Now I already had set my mind on that this butterfly would somehow be crucial later on. However soon after an rather strange intervention, this part of the story is over and was just an introduction in the book. This type of introduction felt similar like the third book where he is just having a quick case in between and the real action start in the second chapter. I am not saying I don’t like it, but it again left me a bit having to abandon certain guesses I made. The real case in Hex and the City is that John had to find out about the origins of the Nightside, how everything got started.

Hex and the City is really a book that starts wrapping up some of the loose ends that were made in the earlier three volumes. On top of it I think this is the best one I have read so far. Not only by the wrapping up of events and setting John on one important task for himself but also again the strange and grotesque Nightside world that, even though its always night in the Nightside, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come alive. This Nightside world is definitely worth a look for.

Again a nice scenic tour in the Nightside by John Taylor. Who’s if finding out the origins of the Nightside for none other than Lady Luck. And can John use some luck.. First off time to assemble a new crew, again none of the above mentioned characters that we have seen earlier, but a new set, and in this Simon R. Green is pretty creative in making up new, very interesting, side characters each time. This time it’s Sinner, Pretty Poison and Madman. They are just amazing! Though you see a lot of action from Sinner and Pretty Poison, Madman makes his true appearance in the end of the book and I was actually pretty pleased with how that went, I actually had given up hope to him in action, but the ending made up more that I could have guessed. Next to these characters of John’s party, Simon R. Green start revealing some of the major players of the Nightside and bizarrely John has a certain air about him of the both in and famous kind of way. John can do a lot by just showing up and demanding, people hold him in awe. Which on another side also invites a way into the funny side of the Nightside stories with John witty comments. Simon R. Green really has a knack setting the setting spot on an creating amazingly bizarre characters.

But the action is not only due to his investigation into the origins of the Nightside. The Authorities have gotten wind of John latest case and led by Henry Walker, the Voice, they are planning to cross John investigation. Whatever it takes. I really liked the introduction of Walker into the story, yes, you already got to meet up with him in the earlier stories and you know that he has a history with John and they aren’t on the best of terms. Hex and the City allows you to fully understand how everything came to pass between them and more.

The ending of the book was one that I think could not have been guessed, already along the way there are quite a few twists and turn but you’re in for a major one at the end. Showing John how everything stands and how everything more or less came to pass. On the whole Hex and the City is for me the best Nightside book yet, it further enlarges the Nightside universe both by showing more of what the Nightside has to offer and the higher forces of it as well, keeps on producing strange characters and tasks for John to fulfill and also nailing that dark gritty and often times humorous setting on the spot. You should really start this series just to learn what is being said in the fourth book. You won’t be disappointed.

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