Unsuitable Love Interests

[mtvessel]

Jun 2023
Grave Danger – Alice James – Solaris, 2023
[Note: This book is written by a friend, so this is more an introduction than a review.]

Hurrah, a new story featuring estate agent-cum-necromancer-cum-reluctant vampire groupie Toni Windsor. It satisfyingly develops some of the good ideas from the previous book.

Set in a well-described wintry Staffordshire, the plot centres around the murder of a girl in the upstairs classroom of a school. There are two main suspects, the janitor Spiky Mikey, who had the means, and local teenage drug dealer Paul Mycroft, who had sneaked into the school at the time of the murder. But why would either of them have done it?

As in Grave Secrets, the mystery is sidelined while developments happen in Toni's love life, which inevitably leads to her becoming increasingly involved in vampiric politics. Without wanting to spoil anything, it is safe to say that readers who were dubious about the wisdom of some of Toni's choices in the previous book will feel well justified by developments in this one. Toni shows rather more self-awareness which makes her much more relatable. And the witty dialogue is as great as ever, with Toni giving no quarter to her arrogant vampiric companions when they try to do her down (should the collective noun for vampires be a "smugness"? I think it should.)

A couple of small criticisms: Some additional suspects would have given the murder mystery more substance. It's a shame that there wasn't much room for development of the necromancer aspects of Toni's character (though there are some interesting revelations). And it's noticeable that all the social power structures that Toni encounters are headed up by men - it would be nice to have a few more agentful female characters. But these are very minor. This book moves things along nicely and I look forward to seeing which unsuitable person Toni falls for next.