Iโm a big fan of Red Nose Studio. They often work with Tor Books, producing quirky little masterpieces of paper and wood and string to grace the covers of the publishing houseโs offerings. But their covers for this set of vampiric murder mysteries by author Lavie Tidhar is on another level. The artwork is what initially drew me in. The murder mystery angle of the stories is what hooked me. This should surprise no one whoโs followed my feed this summer. It is my current favorite genre. Vampires are my favorite monsters. It was a no brainer.
๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด โ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐จ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ณ๐บ๐ฑ๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ.ย ๐๐ถ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ท๐ข๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ท๐ข๐จ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ถ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด.
So I was a little disappointed to find that the mysteries were, unfortunately, mostly trivial and barely mysterious. But I very much got the sense that Tidhar wasnโt aiming to write showy whodunnits as much as he just wanted to have fun with the tropes and conventions of vampire stories โ and he very clearly does. (My favorite gag: each and every single vampire prefacing the word โwineโ with dramatic ellipses.)ย
These stories read very much like experiments in style, eschewing the often august, Gothic sensibilities associated with the elegant ghouls in favor of clever subversions and playful, outrageous scenarios. Which is totally fine โ just not exactly what I expected.ย
Still, these stories are very much fun, and I particularly recommend it to fans of ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ด, as Jonathan, Judge Deeโs milquetoast human companion, reads like a cross between Guillermo, that showโs similarly long-suffering familiar, and Morty, the pushover from, you know, that other show. The titular character himself reads like an aloof Benedict Cumberbatch. Like I said: fun. You can read all three stories that have been released on Tor’s website. My favorite is โJudge Dee and the Poisoner of Montmartre,โ mostly due to the brazen ludicrousness of its plot. (These stories have excellent grandiloquent titles, which I appreciate, naturally.)
ricardo reading 