Toothless

Despite the title, this gritty supernatural historical has plenty of bite. In 12th-century France, corpses are being animated by a force called the Black Yew. Resurrected Templar Martin, now called Toothless, breaks free of the Yew's domination to fight against its depredations. Compelling and well told with only occasional lapses into cliché, this is an unusual mapping of familiar fantasy territory. Moore explores the troubled unlife of a reformed zombie in detail, both from Toothless's perspective and through the eyes of the skeptical living ("Sympathy from one of the Yew's dead. Tenderness. Something about it turned her stomach"). Toothless himself is an introspective, complex protagonist, and his quest to recover what he can of his past is by turns moving, intriguing, and highly entertaining. (Nov.)