Murder in the Dark

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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December 1, 2018

Ishmael Jones is an alien who crashed to Earth, landing in 1963 England. Now in human form, he works for the mysterious Organization as a field agent investigating unusual cases in return for protection. He and partner Penny Belcourt are sent to Brassknockers Hill near Bath after an archaeologist on a dig falls into a black hole in the side of the hill and disappears. The government sends in a team of scientists, for whom Ishmael and Penny are to act as security. But no one listens to Ishmael's warnings, and his extraordinary senses seem diminished in close proximity to the hole. Meanwhile, the hill lives up to its legends, as one by one scientists perish trying to enter while Ishmael watches in frustration. With no way to contact anyone outside their small circle, Ishmael will be lucky if he and Penny survive. VERDICT Green follows up Into the Thinnest of Air with this latest blend of sf, mystery, and horror that features the author's trademark black humor and ratchets up the suspense with a compelling story line reminiscent of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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