Vivia Brisk is a hag, capable of crossing to the world of the dead. Living in London, with her mother’s body in a glass case in the attic (her mother might want it back), her mother’s undead soldier companion, and her sister’s body (her soul is elsewhere), she divides her time between helping the police with murder cases and working with a Croydon-based charity that helps supernatural beings find work. Then the latest victim in her police work is a colleague who turns out to be undead instead of dead, and goes missing. Now London is on lockdown, at risk of an epidemic, and Vivia and her ghosts are the best chance to find him – and find out what else is going on – before a fifteen-year-old murder destroys more lives.

Fans of the urban fiction genre will find this a fascinating new take on older ideas, somewhere between the early Anita Blake books, BloodShadows, and Shaun of the Dead. This is definitely a mature, and in some places a dark, book and it doesn’t shy away from the implications of its world, e.g. zombie activists trying to demand rights to corpses so they can eat. SW Fairbrother has created a believable and recognisable world with a vivid cast of characters, in an ebook presented with a professional layout, proofed and edited. There’s nothing here I can take issue with.

Intelligently plotted, well-written, and gripping, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. I bought the sequel. Fantasy, Urban Paranormal, or just readers looking for a good story will all find something here.