Dead Waters-Anton Strout

Dead Waters
Anton Strout
Ace, Feb 22 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780441020119

In Manhattan’s Columbus Circle, Department Of Extraordinary Affairs Other Worldly Division field agent Simon Canderous and his girlfriend Jane Clayton-Forrester of Greater and Lesser Arcana Division are off the clock doing a favor for vampire Aidan Christos. Customer complains about a spirit haunting an antique store the Undead own; vampires are unable to bite or punch ghosts. The pair rid the store of the insane ghost, but psychometric Simon absorbs tons of negative emotion from the sick spirit.

No time for rest for the weary as the pair attends a meeting called by Simon’s boss Inspectre Qumbley who explains to Jane, Simon and his partner Connor Christos that David Davidson of the Mayor’s Office of Plausibility Deniability needs the help of DEA. Davidson explains that a murder of Professor Mason Redfield has shaken up NYPD. Quimbley is shook too as he knows Mason. The three agents visit the homicide scene in which Mason drowned without a struggle as there is no water on his clothing or on the floor; only in his lungs. The case spins wetter and weirder while Simon struggles to control emotional overload and the need for a chest of drawers.

The latest Canderous urban fantasy (see Dead To Me, Deader Still and Dead Matter) contains the usual defense mechanism banter used by the field agents to relieve the emotions of some of the gruesome adversaries they dive after in “mortal” combat. City budget cuts provide further comic relief as those risking their lives for a government paycheck are told the phony platitude to do more with less although they already spend 90% of their work time in deadly inquiries and 120% time on bureaucratic paper required by fiscal cookie-cutters. Fast-paced even off the clock, readers will enjoy Anton Strout’s Dead twisting investigative thriller with a stunning climax.

Harriet Klausner