Review by Ian Keogh

Antoine Wolfe is first seen completely aflame walking down Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. It’s one hell of a striking image from Matt Taylor and one hell of an opening statement from Aleš Kot. Wolfe investigates the supernatural, and surviving being burned is an occupational hazard.

At first it’s not clear how he survives, although when interviewed by police the following morning it doesn’t seem to have done him any harm. That, though, is indicative of Kot’s style of writing, where a lot of dots have to be joined, and even then total clarity remains elusive. What Wolfe knows is drip-fed to readers. Wolfe has his reasons for accepting an assignment from some extremely unpleasant people, indeed the ones who set him on fire, but it’s a long while before readers are told why.

Despite all this, Wolfe transmits as a sympathetic character, capable, but haunted and tormented, and Kot surrounds him with supernatural eccentricity, often established via dialogue indicating individual speech patterns. Freddy Chtonic’s alliteration just about works, but phonetically spelled dialogue for Scottish vampire Isobel is poor, as is that of a gangster who replaces the letter r in a word with an f. They both transmit as whimsy for its own sake providing a superficial form of personality.

For all the window dressing, Wolfe follows the detective’s pattern of knocking on doors and talking to people, and despite being immersed in the rum and uncanny Taylor keeps things simple with adaptable designs and minimal backgrounds. It’s effective and ensures attention is drawn to what’s necessary.

Around two-thirds of the way through Kot pulls assorted threads together. This is smartly done and surprising, contrasting the forced cleverness of much else, which comes across as Kot desperate to impress with a broad multicultural knowledge. It’s alienating rather than impressive, and there’s a fair amount of it in a scene where Wolfe explains himself toward the end.

The art of writing a detective drama involves a plot that’s simple at heart, but complicated by a person having to put it together, and Wolf succeeds on that basis, but the trimmings may irritate.

Mention of a coming apocalypse recurs, and while this volume can stand alone, Apocalypse Soon provides a sequel.