Lightning Runes

Wisecracking private eye Jack Mitchell again walks down the mean, undead streets of an alternate post-WWII Los Angeles in Turtledove’s gritty second City of Shadows novel (after Twice as Dead), this time following the trail of an unrepentant SS officer who is both vampire and werewolf. While working cases that involve the recording industry and blackmail of a jazz club owner, Jack also rubs up against the mob and the equally unsavory LAPD, who aren’t too happy that the Black PI is dating blonde Hungarian Dora, even if she is a vampire. Meanwhile, Dora is unhappy with Jack’s growing attachment to Rivke, a Jewish concentration camp survivor who works protecting sleeping vampires in the daytime. Turtledove puts a more personal spin on Jack’s adventures this time around, bringing in more of his past and centering the main plot’s resolution on his present-day friends and allies. If the ending gives the novel a bit of a shaggy-dog feel, readers will forgive this for the chance to canoodle with Jack and Dora in the sultry recesses of Turtledove’s well-drawn world. Series fans will find much to enjoy. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh. (Mar.)