Hell's Detective

April 3, 2017
Logan (World War Moo) does justice to his offbeat concept—that even in hell the damned need the services of a hard-bitten PI—in this entertaining mystery. Gumshoe Kat Murphy committed suicide in Los Angeles in 1978 after accidentally gunning down her lover. She now exists in Lost Angeles, “that stinking pit masquerading as a city,” where she’s routinely tormented by memories of her tragic mistake. At a bar, Kat meets the mysterious Laureen Andrews, the chief administrator of Lost Angeles, who offers to stop her nightly sufferings if she succeeds in recovering a “significant item.” Kat resists at first, but she comes around and learns that the item in question is an “Earth-shaped box carved out of mahogany” stolen from Laureen’s personal safe. Kat quickly realizes that Laureen is hoping to keep the loss a secret from her boss, Satan himself. Logan has a knack for crafting lines that will gratify noir fans (“She had curly black hair and cheekbones so sharp that a man could kiss her and shave at the same time”).

April 1, 2017
A detective trapped in purgatory has a chance to win freedom from her past.Stuck in the world of Lost Angeles, the afterlife for those who were none too good in their original lives, Kat Murphy waits out her days at Benny's, a dive bar filled with the closest thing purgatory has to friends. In her former life, Kat was a quick-thinking detective known for her toughness and wit. Those qualities drew fellow detective Danny Ainsworth to Kat but ultimately led to the events that ended both their lives and brought Kat to her indefinite stay in Lost Angeles. When newcomer Franklin Johnson shows up at Benny's, Kat's in no mood to deal with the wannabe detective, though she can't help telling him a few of the tricks of the place--like the news that in the afterlife, you can't die. The same day, Laureen Andrews, one of the city's chief administrators, shows up trying to talk with Kat about her work. Kat's not quite sure what she's done to make herself suddenly so popular or how she can make it stop. But Laureen's got an offer Kat can't refuse: if Kat can help find a mysterious object that seems to have been stolen from Laureen, Laureen will call off the supernatural Torments that haunt Kat's nights. Now Kat has to figure out if it's worth it to engage in the world around her or if she's just another permanent resident of Lost Angeles who's given up. Logan (Wannabes, 2016, etc.) creates a world of the dead rich with details that range from the mundane to the sublimely vicious, suggesting a skill for humor that supersedes his mystery abilities.

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April 1, 2017

Private detective Kat Murphy is in Hell, Lost Angeles. Every night, the residents are visited by a Torment and forced to relive their sins; in Kat's case, she shot her lover, and then killed herself. Every day, Kat goes to her favorite dive bar to drink herself into oblivion, which is where Laureen Andrews, the chief administrator of Lost Angeles, finds her. Someone stole an invaluable box from Laureen, and she offers Kat a bargain. Find that box, and Kat won't be visited by her Torment anymore. This means one more case for Kat that will lead her to the gambling dens, bars, and hangouts of the sinners of Lost Angeles. The danger and violence only intensifies, as Kat's search could change the fate of the world. VERDICT Logan's (Apocalypse Cow) vision of hell is violent, gritty, and filled with evil. Incorporated into an action-packed mystery, this extreme universe should delight fans of Simon R. Green or Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files."--LH

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