Hello my fellow denizens of rasfw,

"City of Shadows" a series by Harry Turtledove

The City of Shadows is the Los Angeles of the
Post-WW II period. This LA ain't our LA not even in 1949.
That WW II was not fought against the NAZI but a group like
them called the Fylfot boys by the characters. A flyfot
is like a swastica but upright with shorter arms but they
shared a lot with the real world NAZI party primarily
in treatment of minorities.
-
The Japanese were in it as well and instead of A-Bombs
they dropped Salamanders on Hiroshima and Nagasaki courtesy of
the Wizards on the project. Just as nasty.

LA is full of the liberated folks from the Flyfot Boys, which
include Jews and Vampires as well as the occasional Zombie
and one Zombie Vampire.

Jack Mitchell is a private investigator with a
talking cat called Old Man Mose, He is also a man with
a drop no more of African blood which would make him a
target for the less amiable members of the LAPD so he
offers them cooperation when it is required.

The first book in the series is "Twice As Dead".
Jack is hired by Dora Urban a Hungarian Vampire of some
power and after his own apartment is salamander-ed
he moves to Vampire Village to be with her. She wants
him to find her depressed half-brother made by the
same master vampire. He does and that is the first
story I read in this series.
One ironic bit is that Jews are hired by
Vampires to protect their homes during daylight
hours.

I wrote a review of that story but it went
away in a crash and confusion of a backup that
was written over the original material. Oh Boo-Hoo!
It was a good story though which is why I can
remember so much of what I wrote before.

We met many other members of populace of LA
from police to a dirty book seller who offer other
merchandise such as information. Being of that
taste Jack frequents Jazz clubs and likes Be-Bop.

The novel I am currently reading is
"Lightening Runes" and Jack is asked by a musician
to investigate a firm which may be allowed to
record the musician who is ahead of his time,
even more advanced than Be-Bop.

Back across the Ocean some Vampires thought the
Flylfot were just aces and joined up being tattooed
with the Lightening Runes and one of those is the
villian.

Now I haven't read the whole of this latest
book yet but I thought I should fill you in, because
that is the next review I will add to this post.

Fine reading for those few of us who like
Hard-boiled detectives and alternative worlds where
the rules of magic and folklore apply.

bliss -

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