Tag Archives: Tor.com

QUICK REVIEW: Judge Dee and the Poisoner of Montmartre – Lavie Tidhar

Judge Dee and the Poisoner of Montmartre, the third of Lavie Tidhar’s Golden Age detective (but with vampires) short stories for Tor.com, sees the eponymous vampire judge and his human companion Jonathan in Paris, remaining in one place for an unusually long time. Even as Jonathan enjoys a measure of stability, not to mention plenty of good French food, he wonders what it is that’s keeping them in Paris, as the normally ascetic judge spends his time attending plays and mingling with Paris’ vampiric population. When a dinner party turns bloody, however, the judge has his work cut out identifying the culprit, given that every vampire in attendance had motive for murder.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: The Angel of Khan el-Khalili – P. Djèlí Clark

One of several fantastic stories set in an alternate early-twentieth century Cairo, P. Djèlí Clark’s The Angel of Khan el-Khalili is a standalone tale (featuring none of the other stories’ characters) exploring secrets, grief and worker rights. Late at night, when most of Cairo is long asleep, young Aliaa visits the market in search of an angel, hoping to bargain for a miracle. There she finds the Angel of Khan el-Khalili, and asks for its aid in healing her sister who has been grievously injured in a fire at the factory where they both work. The angel’s price seems small at first, and Aliaa pays it willingly, but it’s not long before she realises the cost to her own soul.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels – Lavie Tidhar

The second of Lavie Tidhar’s supernatural, Golden Age-esque mystery stories for Tor.com, Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels is another tale of feuding vampires and the implacable justice of the titular Judge Dee. While travelling through the Alps with his put-upon human assistant Jonathan, Judge Dee is summoned to the Duchy of Bavaria to investigate the murder of a vampire. When they arrive at Castle Werdenfels, the Judge and Jonathan find no fewer than three potential culprits, each one claiming to have murdered the Count and proclaiming themselves the inheritors of the castle as a result.

Continue reading →

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 – P. Djèlí Clark

Set in the same world as his short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo, P Djèlí Clark’s novella The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is another slice of alternate-world urban fantasy, full of characterful storytelling and vibrant world building. Agent Hamed Nasr of Cairo’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, along with his younger colleague Agent Onsi, are called to Ramses Station to investigate a haunting in one of the city’s trams. When it transpires that it’s the tram car itself which is haunted, what Hamed assumed was going to be a simple task becomes much more complicated, as the agents attempt to identify the spirit and coax it out of its mechanical host…to varying degrees of success.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law – Lavie Tidhar

The first in a new series of short stories from Lavie Tidhar, published by Tor.com, Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law is a delightful mix of gothic vampire story and Golden Age mystery. Accompanied by his slightly hesitant human assistant Jonathan, Judge Dee – a wise old vampire prone to long stares and thoughtful pauses – travels to the Castello d’oro to investigate a squabble between two vampire nobles. As the enforcer of vampiric law (the pax lamia) it’s within his power to be judge, jury and executioner, but first he needs to uncover the truth of what really happened.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: A Dead Djinn in Cairo – P. Djèlí Clark

When a djinn is found dead – exsanguinated, to be precise – it’s Fatma el-Sha’awari’s task, as an investigator for Egypt’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, to find out how and why, in P. Djèlí Clark’s intriguing urban fantasy A Dead Djinn in Cairo. What at first appears to be a simple case of suicide (however unlikely that may be among immortals) quickly develops into a mystery involving djinn mythology, mechanical angels and flesh-eating ghuls rising from Cairo’s slums. Whatever it is that’s stirring amongst the city’s supernatural denizens, it’s up to Fatma to put a stop to it.

Continue reading →