Publish and Perish – Phillipa Bornikova

A disappointing sequel to two excellent books. The first - This Case is Gonna Kill Me - introduces a young lawyer with unreasonable luck: Werewolves who try to kill her come to bad ends, through the equivalent of stepping on a banana peel. Excellent read. In the second - Box Office Poison - also an excellent read - the luck is found to extend to Elves who try to kill her.

In “Publish and Perish” the reason for her luck turns out to be apocalyptic - and incoherent. Good Masons, bad Masons, millenia-old conspiracies, creatures with whatever powers the plot requires from other dimensions, really bad science.

In the process of racing from one clue to another, and one revelation to another, Linnet Ellery goes from being an interesting and engaging protagonist to being a plot device to convey us from exposition to exposition. It’s a pity, because her character was the best part of the earlier books.