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A review by ellelainey
Till Sudden Death Do Us Part by Simon R. Green
4.0
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Till Sudden Death Do Us Part, by Simon R. Green
Ishmael Jones, 07
★★★★☆
192 Pages
1st person, single character POV
Themes: murder, science fiction, aliens, secret organisations, small town, family curse, shape-changers
Triggers: mentions of gore, violence and supernatural beings
Genre: Contemporary, Murder Mystery, Science Fiction, Crime
Till Sudden Death Do Us Part is the seventh book in the Ishmael Jones series and deviates from the usual plot concept slightly because this is neither a locked-house or locked-room mystery! In fact, it's not even an isolated location mystery.
Ishmael receives a request from an old friend – from way back when he worked for Black Heir in the 60s – whose daughter is about to get married. Robert Bergin was once a Black Heir operative, now in his late70's and with a daughter set to be married, he needs Ishmael's help to break a family curse generations in the making. The curse threatens the lives of the bride and groom, who have all died horribly on their wedding night. To prevent this, Ishmael and Penny attend the small country village to help out.
There's a whole new cast, as well as the recurring characters of Ishmael, Penny and the Colonel. New characters are all wedding related:
Robert – the father of the bride
Gillian – the bride
Tom – the groom, and an up-and-coming actor
Detective Inspector Peter Godwin – the local police, the only one left after everyone else is called to an emergency
Cathy – local taxi driver and old school friend of Gillian's
Linda Meadows – local reporter
Ian Adams – Linda's friend and cameraman
David Barnes – best man and up-and-coming actor along with Tom
Karen Nicholls – bridesmaid and old school friend of Gillian's
Reverend Allen – the first victim, and original vicar for the wedding
Reverend Stewart – his replacement
The plot itself is intriguing. There's a family curse that says the groom will die on the wedding night and bride will either go mad or kill herself afterwards. To make sure that doesn't happen, Robert brings in Ishmael to investigate, after the vicar is killed in his own church. But when Ishmael arrives, the town is terrified of the curse and it's hard to get anyone in the wedding party to believe in it long enough to be cautious.
The investigation goes pretty much along the lines of most others, in that Ishmael and Penny talk to anyone and everyone possible to get more background on the situation, the main players, and then try to figure out what's going on. What's different is that the stakes are lower, the killer is cunning, and the situation is far more dangerous to Ishmael in that this is a favour done outside of the Organisation so he doesn't have any back-up if anything goes wrong.
Add onto that the fact that Ishmael's inner alien is pressing at the gates of its cage, waiting to be set free, and Ishmael is so afraid of what might happen if it gets out that he can't sleep or use his abilities to their full for fear that it will grow strong enough to escape. The fact that he's temporarily imprisoned in this story, paraded through the street in handcuffs, only adds to his paranoia and the danger he's in if the inner alien gets out, because he's terrified that it might just kill everyone in his way.
I loved the representation that was added here, as well. There's an openly gay character, Cathy is openly promiscuous but never shamed or shunned for it, and there's mention that she had a teenage abortion which is never used to shame or degrade her. There is also a mention of childhood bullying and brief off-page parental abuse, that's handled sensitively despite not being related to the main characters.
It was really nice to see a few brief passages about Ishmael's past where he reminisced about his first official partner, Lady Patricia in the 60s. It was great to see something of who he used to be and how suddenly his age and non-ageing abilities crept up on him. It was also good to see how he felt when he faced Robert, who was showing his age and how that affected Ishmael mentally as well as how it affected Robert, who had to see his old world colleague un-aged.
There were a lot of nice twists and turns in the story that kept me guessing, and while I had a few theories throughout the book, I felt it all came together nicely. It felt well paced and reasoned out, and just when I thought Ishmael might fall for that old misdirection trick again – that he's now encountered in 2 recent books – he proved me wrong and saw right through it.
~
Favourite Quote
“But...am I a man dreaming he used to be an alien, or an alien dreaming he's a man?”
Copy received through Netgalley
~
Till Sudden Death Do Us Part, by Simon R. Green
Ishmael Jones, 07
★★★★☆
192 Pages
1st person, single character POV
Themes: murder, science fiction, aliens, secret organisations, small town, family curse, shape-changers
Triggers: mentions of gore, violence and supernatural beings
Genre: Contemporary, Murder Mystery, Science Fiction, Crime
Till Sudden Death Do Us Part is the seventh book in the Ishmael Jones series and deviates from the usual plot concept slightly because this is neither a locked-house or locked-room mystery! In fact, it's not even an isolated location mystery.
Ishmael receives a request from an old friend – from way back when he worked for Black Heir in the 60s – whose daughter is about to get married. Robert Bergin was once a Black Heir operative, now in his late70's and with a daughter set to be married, he needs Ishmael's help to break a family curse generations in the making. The curse threatens the lives of the bride and groom, who have all died horribly on their wedding night. To prevent this, Ishmael and Penny attend the small country village to help out.
There's a whole new cast, as well as the recurring characters of Ishmael, Penny and the Colonel. New characters are all wedding related:
Robert – the father of the bride
Gillian – the bride
Tom – the groom, and an up-and-coming actor
Detective Inspector Peter Godwin – the local police, the only one left after everyone else is called to an emergency
Cathy – local taxi driver and old school friend of Gillian's
Linda Meadows – local reporter
Ian Adams – Linda's friend and cameraman
David Barnes – best man and up-and-coming actor along with Tom
Karen Nicholls – bridesmaid and old school friend of Gillian's
Reverend Allen – the first victim, and original vicar for the wedding
Reverend Stewart – his replacement
The plot itself is intriguing. There's a family curse that says the groom will die on the wedding night and bride will either go mad or kill herself afterwards. To make sure that doesn't happen, Robert brings in Ishmael to investigate, after the vicar is killed in his own church. But when Ishmael arrives, the town is terrified of the curse and it's hard to get anyone in the wedding party to believe in it long enough to be cautious.
The investigation goes pretty much along the lines of most others, in that Ishmael and Penny talk to anyone and everyone possible to get more background on the situation, the main players, and then try to figure out what's going on. What's different is that the stakes are lower, the killer is cunning, and the situation is far more dangerous to Ishmael in that this is a favour done outside of the Organisation so he doesn't have any back-up if anything goes wrong.
Add onto that the fact that Ishmael's inner alien is pressing at the gates of its cage, waiting to be set free, and Ishmael is so afraid of what might happen if it gets out that he can't sleep or use his abilities to their full for fear that it will grow strong enough to escape. The fact that he's temporarily imprisoned in this story, paraded through the street in handcuffs, only adds to his paranoia and the danger he's in if the inner alien gets out, because he's terrified that it might just kill everyone in his way.
I loved the representation that was added here, as well. There's an openly gay character, Cathy is openly promiscuous but never shamed or shunned for it, and there's mention that she had a teenage abortion which is never used to shame or degrade her. There is also a mention of childhood bullying and brief off-page parental abuse, that's handled sensitively despite not being related to the main characters.
It was really nice to see a few brief passages about Ishmael's past where he reminisced about his first official partner, Lady Patricia in the 60s. It was great to see something of who he used to be and how suddenly his age and non-ageing abilities crept up on him. It was also good to see how he felt when he faced Robert, who was showing his age and how that affected Ishmael mentally as well as how it affected Robert, who had to see his old world colleague un-aged.
There were a lot of nice twists and turns in the story that kept me guessing, and while I had a few theories throughout the book, I felt it all came together nicely. It felt well paced and reasoned out, and just when I thought Ishmael might fall for that old misdirection trick again – that he's now encountered in 2 recent books – he proved me wrong and saw right through it.
~
Favourite Quote
“But...am I a man dreaming he used to be an alien, or an alien dreaming he's a man?”