Consider the matter of an antique violin, one of a number constructed by a man called Erich Zan, and made of human bone taken from multiple live donors, which are solely intended to produce music capable of murdering demons. The problem is that a demented soul lives within the violin and it thrives on eating the souls of others…
Mo is the keeper of this most demonic instrument. It invades her dreams and wants the soul of her colleagues and that of her husband who’s been forced to move out lest someone dies. And despite Mo’s skill as a world class violinist, it will not be controlled…
Ahhh but there’s a lot more to this story than merely that interesting morsel as The Laundry Files details, in a first person narrative by her husband Bob Howard, the fight by a British secret agency against supernatural forces from beyond this Universe to, well, destroy reality as we know it. Flesh eating unicorns, vampires, evil demon possessed felines — all are some of the instruments created by these forces if inadvertently.
And this is where it gets interesting. Dominique O’Brien, her friends call her Mo, is the narrator here as its her story, not her husband who (mostly) offstage and we see only through the eyes of his wife. Mo has been fast-tracked by senior Laundry staff and is now in charge of a new unit to recruit super powered beings into that unit to assist the British government in duties ranging from handling riots to preventing much worse things from happening.
Seconded to her unit, the Transhuman Policy Cordination Unit, are two, errr, not quite human women that Mo, and she admits this, thinks screwed around with Bob. Not true but jealousy is no more rationa than love is. One is a vampire, one is a deep sea dweller complete with the tale of a mermaid. Both are perfect for this unit and it takes Mo just a short while to realize that.
Ok, I usually don’t refer to other reviews of a work but the pure venom of the male reviewers towards Mo as the narrator is disturbing. The reviewers very obviously expected Bob to be the narrator and deeply resent Mo being in that role. Personally I thought that this was the best entry in the series in some time as I’ve barely touched upon the story here which moves better Mo’s private life, her interactions with that cursed violin and the politics within both The Laundry and the Met (Metropolitan Police) which is fascinating.
Oh and wait until you reach the part that describes their unique fast response vehicle.
You needn’t have read the previous five novels to read this one and enjoy this spectacular novel, but I suggest that you’ll do read the previous works, novels and novellas alike, as you’ll really like them.
(Ace Books, 2015)
