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In a bit of cosmic irony, John Taylor is now what he spent his adulthood fighting against: Walker, the Voice of the Authorities. It's his job to keep the peace in the Nightside, London's supernatural black heart, even while his love Suzie Shooter makes wedding plans.

More by Simon R. Green Deathstalker Return Nightingales Lament Deathstalker Coda Hex And The City Paths Not Taken Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth Hell to Pay A Walk on the Nightside The Man With The Golden Torc The Man With the Golden Torc Guards of Haven: The Adventures of Hawk and Fisher The Unnatural Inquirer * The Bride Wore Black Leather Secret Histories: * Daemons Are Forever * The Spy Who Haunted Me * From Hell With Love * The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny * For Heaven's Eyes Only Ghost Finder: * Ghost of a Smile Anthologies: * Mean Streets

Before settling into a life of domestic bliss, however, Taylor wants one last case. And he gets it, in the form of a party where an immortality serum may be up for grabs. Crashing the party with Julian Advent, the Victorian Adventurer, Taylor goes up against the horrific King of Skin-- moments before a grisly murder occurs that tests his deductive powers...well, a bit.

But then, Advent himself is murdered and Taylor is the suspect. The entire Nightside is now howling for Taylor's blood--possibly spurred on by some outside party--and Taylor has to solve the case, fast, or lose his life. When it seems even his own bride-to-be is gunning for him, things appear to be at their lowest.

Until he learns about the Sun King and his plans to erase the Nightside from Earth once and for all...

As (perhaps) the last in the Nightside series, Simon R. Green walks us through his most thoroughly developed setting and its vast assortment of strange, devious, and downright weird characters. Fleeing through the Nightside, Taylor delivers a vivid tourists-eye view of that particular hellscape, with skirmishes aplenty with friends and enemies alike. He tangles with Razor Eddie (a battle that nearly every fan saw coming), as well as the Oblivion brothers, and has a last drink at Strangefellows with Alex Morrissey.

The case is not what it seems (when it is ever?) and, though it harks back to other stories in the series, it delivers its own sort of grace. There are huge payoffs in the narrative and lots of affectionate farewells, as well as shoutouts (a Green trademark) to one or two other series. (And yes, a huge cliffhanger in another series is confirmed here.)

The Nightside may be shuttered for now, but Green never forsakes his darlings for long; readers may expect to see John Taylor, Shotgun Suzie or other denizens of the Nightside infiltrate his other works in the future. At the very least, they've been given a proper sendoff.

Recommended.