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Twice As Dead
Rudolf Sebestyen is missing, and Marianne Smalls is involved in an illicit affair with the shady Jonas Schmitt. Both cases converge when Dora Urban, Rudolf’s beautiful and mysterious half-sister, and Lamont Smalls, Marianne’s suspicious husband, hire Jack Mitchell, a hard-drinking, chain-smoking private investigator. Dora wants Jack to uncover what happened to her brother, while Lamont seeks proof of his wife’s infidelity.
But Dora is a vampire, in a city teeming with creatures of the night.
As Jack dives deeper, he discovers that both cases are linked to vepratoga—a dangerous new drug spreading through Los Angeles. Twice as Dead is brimming with vampires, wizards, zombies and zombie dealers, the Central Avenue jazz scene, an exclusive after-hours club, adultery, a New England ghost who prefers Southern California’s warmer clime, corrupt cops and politicians, spying rats, and a smart-mouthed talking cat.
When Jack’s home is burned to the ground, the strands of his investigations culminate in a showdown at a tire factory, where even the reliefs on the walls are not what they seem. In this unique noirish urban fantasy set in postwar Los Angeles, Jack finds more adventure, danger, and romance than he ever imagined—and learns that success may come at too high a price.
But Dora is a vampire, in a city teeming with creatures of the night.
As Jack dives deeper, he discovers that both cases are linked to vepratoga—a dangerous new drug spreading through Los Angeles. Twice as Dead is brimming with vampires, wizards, zombies and zombie dealers, the Central Avenue jazz scene, an exclusive after-hours club, adultery, a New England ghost who prefers Southern California’s warmer clime, corrupt cops and politicians, spying rats, and a smart-mouthed talking cat.
When Jack’s home is burned to the ground, the strands of his investigations culminate in a showdown at a tire factory, where even the reliefs on the walls are not what they seem. In this unique noirish urban fantasy set in postwar Los Angeles, Jack finds more adventure, danger, and romance than he ever imagined—and learns that success may come at too high a price.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published March 18, 2025
85 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
Harry Turtledove
564 books1,964 followersDr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
May 3, 2025
A magical, 1950s Los Angeles with vampires and zombies. Jack Mitchell is a private investigator who is not as violent as Phillip Marlowe and uses his brains and those of his friends a bit more. Of course being LA, there are corrupt cops and big companies that buy them off. Also one major part of the book takes place in an Art Deco tire factory that looks like an Assyrian temple.
Zombies as slave labor fits in with the traditional legends and is horrifying. Vampires and blood banks oh my!
A decent novel with some nice twists and turns.
Zombies as slave labor fits in with the traditional legends and is horrifying. Vampires and blood banks oh my!
A decent novel with some nice twists and turns.
December 10, 2025
I listened to the audiobook of this one, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Imagine an LA where the setting is some ambiguous point in the past. Vampires and humans live in a sort of cautious detante, but, like they do, humans look down on them. It's also a time when blatant racism and bigotry are prevalent in every walk of life, police are hopelessly corrupt... and in the middle is our guy, a down on his luck private eye with a talking cat and more debt than work.
There are multiple threads branching out from this - the missing half brother of a gorgeous vampire, the missing worker from a tire factory, a new subtance it's best not to mention by name, and a host of side-characters that keep things moving along and entertaining. I was particularly taken by the sort of side romance was handled... while man of the standard tropes are there, it felt real, was not overblown, or too graphic ... just a well-spun yarn of noir crime and detection in a world both similar and very different from our own.
The narratorm, Paul Boehmer, grew on me. All of the characters, from the cat to the gorgeous vampire, were well articulated, believable and fun. My only slight quibble is that the main protagonist's voice didn't seem to quite fit the vernacular of the seedy old time PI. I guess I wanted more Bogart.
Highly recommend this - it was a lot of fun.
There are multiple threads branching out from this - the missing half brother of a gorgeous vampire, the missing worker from a tire factory, a new subtance it's best not to mention by name, and a host of side-characters that keep things moving along and entertaining. I was particularly taken by the sort of side romance was handled... while man of the standard tropes are there, it felt real, was not overblown, or too graphic ... just a well-spun yarn of noir crime and detection in a world both similar and very different from our own.
The narratorm, Paul Boehmer, grew on me. All of the characters, from the cat to the gorgeous vampire, were well articulated, believable and fun. My only slight quibble is that the main protagonist's voice didn't seem to quite fit the vernacular of the seedy old time PI. I guess I wanted more Bogart.
Highly recommend this - it was a lot of fun.
August 19, 2025
Recent Reads: Twice As Dead. Harry Turtledove's fantasy LA noir takes to an alternate California, where vampires escaped a world war and zombies sweep the streets. PI Jack Mitchell is in the eye of a storm, trying to solve three cases at once. Can he survive the blowback? Classic crime with a twist.
December 17, 2024
Thanks to Arc Manor for copy. Excellent alternate history urban noir set in 1950’s. Recommended.
March 22, 2025
The story begins the way all the best hard-boiled, noir stories begin, with a private detective in his down-at-heel and behind-on-rent office in the less salubrious part of town waiting for either the phone to ring, for someone to knock at the door, or for his willpower to resist the bottle in his desk drawer to run dry. Only one of those three is ever a frequent occurrence.
The knock on the door is followed by the entrance of a mysterious woman with a sob story, a need for his professional services and a whole lot of secrets she’s not planning to share unless she has to. He knows she’s likely to be more trouble than she’s worth – in more ways than one – but he can’t resist her siren song OR the temptation of the mystery she represents.
The ‘real’ Angels Flight, Los Angeles, CA 1955
It’s an opening straight out of Philip Marlowe (The Big Sleep) or Easy Rawlins (Devil in a Blue Dress), but this isn’t exactly our Los Angeles. Welcome to the City of Shadows, where the government is corrupt, the police are on the take, zombies clean the streets, vampires have their own neighborhood in the midst of the city districts filled with other so-called marginal populations and there’s a new drug on the streets that can even get the undead higher than the literal Angel’s Flight over Bunker Hill.
A real angel, an angel who has been ferrying passengers up that hill on his own wings since LONG before the Spanish missionaries were brought to meet him.
Private investigator Jack Mitchell might finally become solvent if the three cases that arrive at his door all get solved and all pay their bills – as rare as that combination has been in Jack’s experience. Lamont Small’s wife is having an affair. Clarice Jethroe’s husband is missing. So is Dora Urban’s half-brother.
Initially, the only thing the three cases have in common is that law enforcement isn’t going to help and any other PI is going to show these potential clients the door without listening to them. Lamont Smalls and Clarice Jethroe – and their respective spouses – are black. Dora Urban is a vampire, and so is her half brother.
Jack Mitchell, mixed-race enough to ‘pass’ in either direction, and all too aware of who ‘sees’ him, who doesn’t and what it means to walk that narrow line, is their only hope.
If one of the three cases doesn’t get him killed before, or after, they intersect. Unless Dora bleeds him dry first.
Escape Rating A+: I wasn’t expecting this at all. I wasn’t expecting Twice as Dead to be SO DAMN GOOD. I really wasn’t expecting a story that reads like the very best ‘Old Skool’ urban fantasy with a protagonist who could have hung out with Philip Marlowe, Easy Rawlins or Dan Shamble (Death Warmed Over) with ease even though Mitchell would be wondering the whole time whether Marlowe and Rawlins would see him for who he was (Rawlins almost certainly yes, Marlowe maybe not) while zombie PI Shamble would have creeped Mitchell out down to the bone.
I expected to like this. I like urban fantasy very much, and you just don’t see a lot of it these days, especially urban fantasy that doesn’t fall over the line into paranormal romance. Which this doesn’t, if only because Dora Urban doesn’t believe that vampires are capable of the feeling.
In fact, the one and only complaint I have with this book is the cover. It’s really cheesy, and Dora Urban wouldn’t be caught dead – pardon me, as a vampire she would say finished – in that get up. She’s way classier than that. And this book deserves something better.
What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with this story from beginning to end, setting, characters, mystery, alternate history, and absolutely ALL, even more than Mitchell thinks he’s fallen for Dora.
Then again, he’s quite possibly going to discover that he’s been a complete fool in a later book in this series – while I’m certainly NOT. This was GOOD. Downright EXCELLENT. If the subsequent books live up to this series opener I’m going to be one very happy reader.
(In case you can’t tell, I’m having a difficult time getting to the meat of this thing because I had such a good time with it. Everything keeps turning to ‘SQUEE!’)
I’m not sure whether what first dragged me so deeply into this story was the characters or the setting. Actually I do know the first thing. Mitchell talks to his cat, Old Man Mose – and Mose talks back. I got teased by the question of whether Mose was really talking or whether Mitchell was putting words in his mouth – as people who are owned by cats often do.
Because that question led immediately to two others – just how magical is this alternate post-WW2 Los Angeles, followed by the question about how big those alternatives are and in exactly what ways.
And then there’s Mitchell himself, who is so very much in the Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe/Easy Rawlins hard-boiled detective mode, but with the nod to Marlowe and Rawlins because they both operated in our LA during the same time period that Mitchell does in his.
The cases Mitchell is confronted with combine the classics – a missing husband, a cheating wife, a missing brother who was clearly mixed up in something illegal and might have deserved whatever happened to him – which his sister doesn’t want to reveal because she knows damn well that he probably had it coming.
Then it spirals out into the differences. Two of his clients are black, and both his clients and himself acknowledge that the color of their skin means that they can only get help from one of their own, and that reaching out to the cops will only bring more trouble. While vampire Dora knows the cops don’t want to deal with her kind any more than she wants to deal with theirs – and that whatever her brother was in up to his neck was both ill-advised and illegal. Of course, trouble finds all of them anyway or this story wouldn’t exist.
Downtown Los Angeles ca 1950
What captivated me was the careful way in which this both was and was not Los Angeles as our own history knew it. At first, the reader believes they can place this story in time as well as location. It’s five years after the war in which Mitchell served. And that war was analogous to World War II, but it wasn’t exactly the same and is never called that, and neither were the opposing forces ever referred to as Nazis, but rather a name that translates to swastika. And they had sorcerers on their side. But then, so did the Allies.
There are other references that let the reader feel comfortable that this is post-World War II, but jazz musicians ‘Bird’ and ‘Lady Day’ are never referred to by their full names as we know them. So they might be, they might not exactly be, and we might or might not be further down the other leg of the trousers of time than we thought.
(I expected this part of the story to be marvelous because alternate history is what this author is award-winningly famous for. I just wasn’t expecting to see this depth of craft in a story that many will assume is ‘light’ entertainment. And I should have. If you are interested in alternate history and haven’t read Harry Turtledove, go forth and begin immediately because he’s awesome at it whether you agree with the choices he makes or not.)
I just settled in for the marvelous ride as Mitchell starts out with those seemingly common cases that in the best hard-boiled mystery fashion slowly congealed into a single case. An investigation that zigzagged from robbery to illicit drugs to dangerous magical experiments and landed in the machinations of an evil corporation secretly controlled by ancient gods who resorted to the most arcane method possible to silence any inconvenient enemies.
Considering how much trouble Mitchell is making for them, it’s a fate that he fears for himself and all his friends and associates – including the cat! – unless he can put together the right crew to fight back, not with knives and bullets – but on the magical plane.
Twice as Dead is the first book in the City of Shadows series, so clearly someone gets out of this story alive. Or at least, not dead. Or in the same state they went into it, if not a bit better. But the ending is just as clearly the start of something that goes with no good deed being unpunished, and this reader absolutely cannot wait to find out what that punishment is going to be.
Originally published at Reading Reality
The knock on the door is followed by the entrance of a mysterious woman with a sob story, a need for his professional services and a whole lot of secrets she’s not planning to share unless she has to. He knows she’s likely to be more trouble than she’s worth – in more ways than one – but he can’t resist her siren song OR the temptation of the mystery she represents.
The ‘real’ Angels Flight, Los Angeles, CA 1955
It’s an opening straight out of Philip Marlowe (The Big Sleep) or Easy Rawlins (Devil in a Blue Dress), but this isn’t exactly our Los Angeles. Welcome to the City of Shadows, where the government is corrupt, the police are on the take, zombies clean the streets, vampires have their own neighborhood in the midst of the city districts filled with other so-called marginal populations and there’s a new drug on the streets that can even get the undead higher than the literal Angel’s Flight over Bunker Hill.
A real angel, an angel who has been ferrying passengers up that hill on his own wings since LONG before the Spanish missionaries were brought to meet him.
Private investigator Jack Mitchell might finally become solvent if the three cases that arrive at his door all get solved and all pay their bills – as rare as that combination has been in Jack’s experience. Lamont Small’s wife is having an affair. Clarice Jethroe’s husband is missing. So is Dora Urban’s half-brother.
Initially, the only thing the three cases have in common is that law enforcement isn’t going to help and any other PI is going to show these potential clients the door without listening to them. Lamont Smalls and Clarice Jethroe – and their respective spouses – are black. Dora Urban is a vampire, and so is her half brother.
Jack Mitchell, mixed-race enough to ‘pass’ in either direction, and all too aware of who ‘sees’ him, who doesn’t and what it means to walk that narrow line, is their only hope.
If one of the three cases doesn’t get him killed before, or after, they intersect. Unless Dora bleeds him dry first.
Escape Rating A+: I wasn’t expecting this at all. I wasn’t expecting Twice as Dead to be SO DAMN GOOD. I really wasn’t expecting a story that reads like the very best ‘Old Skool’ urban fantasy with a protagonist who could have hung out with Philip Marlowe, Easy Rawlins or Dan Shamble (Death Warmed Over) with ease even though Mitchell would be wondering the whole time whether Marlowe and Rawlins would see him for who he was (Rawlins almost certainly yes, Marlowe maybe not) while zombie PI Shamble would have creeped Mitchell out down to the bone.
I expected to like this. I like urban fantasy very much, and you just don’t see a lot of it these days, especially urban fantasy that doesn’t fall over the line into paranormal romance. Which this doesn’t, if only because Dora Urban doesn’t believe that vampires are capable of the feeling.
In fact, the one and only complaint I have with this book is the cover. It’s really cheesy, and Dora Urban wouldn’t be caught dead – pardon me, as a vampire she would say finished – in that get up. She’s way classier than that. And this book deserves something better.
What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with this story from beginning to end, setting, characters, mystery, alternate history, and absolutely ALL, even more than Mitchell thinks he’s fallen for Dora.
Then again, he’s quite possibly going to discover that he’s been a complete fool in a later book in this series – while I’m certainly NOT. This was GOOD. Downright EXCELLENT. If the subsequent books live up to this series opener I’m going to be one very happy reader.
(In case you can’t tell, I’m having a difficult time getting to the meat of this thing because I had such a good time with it. Everything keeps turning to ‘SQUEE!’)
I’m not sure whether what first dragged me so deeply into this story was the characters or the setting. Actually I do know the first thing. Mitchell talks to his cat, Old Man Mose – and Mose talks back. I got teased by the question of whether Mose was really talking or whether Mitchell was putting words in his mouth – as people who are owned by cats often do.
Because that question led immediately to two others – just how magical is this alternate post-WW2 Los Angeles, followed by the question about how big those alternatives are and in exactly what ways.
And then there’s Mitchell himself, who is so very much in the Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe/Easy Rawlins hard-boiled detective mode, but with the nod to Marlowe and Rawlins because they both operated in our LA during the same time period that Mitchell does in his.
The cases Mitchell is confronted with combine the classics – a missing husband, a cheating wife, a missing brother who was clearly mixed up in something illegal and might have deserved whatever happened to him – which his sister doesn’t want to reveal because she knows damn well that he probably had it coming.
Then it spirals out into the differences. Two of his clients are black, and both his clients and himself acknowledge that the color of their skin means that they can only get help from one of their own, and that reaching out to the cops will only bring more trouble. While vampire Dora knows the cops don’t want to deal with her kind any more than she wants to deal with theirs – and that whatever her brother was in up to his neck was both ill-advised and illegal. Of course, trouble finds all of them anyway or this story wouldn’t exist.
Downtown Los Angeles ca 1950
What captivated me was the careful way in which this both was and was not Los Angeles as our own history knew it. At first, the reader believes they can place this story in time as well as location. It’s five years after the war in which Mitchell served. And that war was analogous to World War II, but it wasn’t exactly the same and is never called that, and neither were the opposing forces ever referred to as Nazis, but rather a name that translates to swastika. And they had sorcerers on their side. But then, so did the Allies.
There are other references that let the reader feel comfortable that this is post-World War II, but jazz musicians ‘Bird’ and ‘Lady Day’ are never referred to by their full names as we know them. So they might be, they might not exactly be, and we might or might not be further down the other leg of the trousers of time than we thought.
(I expected this part of the story to be marvelous because alternate history is what this author is award-winningly famous for. I just wasn’t expecting to see this depth of craft in a story that many will assume is ‘light’ entertainment. And I should have. If you are interested in alternate history and haven’t read Harry Turtledove, go forth and begin immediately because he’s awesome at it whether you agree with the choices he makes or not.)
I just settled in for the marvelous ride as Mitchell starts out with those seemingly common cases that in the best hard-boiled mystery fashion slowly congealed into a single case. An investigation that zigzagged from robbery to illicit drugs to dangerous magical experiments and landed in the machinations of an evil corporation secretly controlled by ancient gods who resorted to the most arcane method possible to silence any inconvenient enemies.
Considering how much trouble Mitchell is making for them, it’s a fate that he fears for himself and all his friends and associates – including the cat! – unless he can put together the right crew to fight back, not with knives and bullets – but on the magical plane.
Twice as Dead is the first book in the City of Shadows series, so clearly someone gets out of this story alive. Or at least, not dead. Or in the same state they went into it, if not a bit better. But the ending is just as clearly the start of something that goes with no good deed being unpunished, and this reader absolutely cannot wait to find out what that punishment is going to be.
Originally published at Reading Reality
February 20, 2025
Harry Turtledove is one of my favorite authors, albeit I didn't read his entire bibliography. I got know his writing with The Lost Legion and I've read those books probably ten or more times and when one set started to fall apart, I bought a new one. After first four Videssos books I found Gerin the Fox novels and loved them a lot. I've read them probably two or three times. And after those I totally fell in love with The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump. I've read that books twice, about quarter of a century ago, when I was all about urban fantasy and huge fan of Laurel Hamilton and her Anita Blake series. Back then, about the same time, I read Otherwise (or Otherworld) books by Poul Anderson and over the decades The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump and Operation Chaos and Luna by Poul Anderson got mixed up in my head and I've started seeing them as set in the same world, authored by Harry Turtledove. All of this is to say that when I started reading Twice as Dead, I had a feeling like I was falling in some quite familiar and well known world, almost like I was reading a sequel of those novels.
I'm not well versed in American history, but I would hazard a guess that the novel is set in late '40s or early '50s of the 20th century, and at some points I had some difficulty to follow certain references, so I had to search them on the internet, but that was very rewarding in it self. In fact, while I'm writing this I'm listening to the music that features in the book somewhat heavily.
Twice as Dead is basically an LA noir crime novel, but with huge amount of social commentary, not so much concerning social class and standing, although there's a lot of that, but mostly about race and religion in America, segregation and racism, as well as immigrants, antisemitism and a lot about the danger of fascism and white supremacy. I can't imagine what made Turtledove write a book like that. :) I must say that at certain times some of that social commentary came a bit heavy-handed but then again, I'm a middle aged East European Socialist that belongs to ethnic majority in my country (sort of), not a minority in America, so what do I know.
All that aside, if we read this novel strictly as urban fantasy yarn, I had an immense amount of fun. Turtledove is a master of written word, leagues beyond average writer in the field of urban fantasy and I would love nothing more than to see Twice as Dead become a successful series of novel in the manner of Dresden Files, let us say. Turtledove's writing and world building is fascinating and complex and his firm grasp of history allows him to engage the reader and lure them into full immersion into America that is lost in time and now belongs solely to old movies and books with yellowed pages.
I want to read more of this while I'm listening to Charlie Parker and Bille Holiday. Oh, and I got to buy myself a bottle of Wild Turkey as soon as possible.
5*
I'm not well versed in American history, but I would hazard a guess that the novel is set in late '40s or early '50s of the 20th century, and at some points I had some difficulty to follow certain references, so I had to search them on the internet, but that was very rewarding in it self. In fact, while I'm writing this I'm listening to the music that features in the book somewhat heavily.
Twice as Dead is basically an LA noir crime novel, but with huge amount of social commentary, not so much concerning social class and standing, although there's a lot of that, but mostly about race and religion in America, segregation and racism, as well as immigrants, antisemitism and a lot about the danger of fascism and white supremacy. I can't imagine what made Turtledove write a book like that. :) I must say that at certain times some of that social commentary came a bit heavy-handed but then again, I'm a middle aged East European Socialist that belongs to ethnic majority in my country (sort of), not a minority in America, so what do I know.
All that aside, if we read this novel strictly as urban fantasy yarn, I had an immense amount of fun. Turtledove is a master of written word, leagues beyond average writer in the field of urban fantasy and I would love nothing more than to see Twice as Dead become a successful series of novel in the manner of Dresden Files, let us say. Turtledove's writing and world building is fascinating and complex and his firm grasp of history allows him to engage the reader and lure them into full immersion into America that is lost in time and now belongs solely to old movies and books with yellowed pages.
I want to read more of this while I'm listening to Charlie Parker and Bille Holiday. Oh, and I got to buy myself a bottle of Wild Turkey as soon as possible.
5*
March 7, 2025
This is the start of a new series from Harry Turtledove. It’s an interesting departure from the alternate history he’s written a lot of, and although it starts a series it works well as a stand alone. I found it entertaining and absorbing.
Jack Mitchell is a private detective in a Los Angeles that doesn’t look very much like the one we know. World War II was fought with different people for different reasons, magic is real, and creatures like zombies and vampires inhabit the city along with the living population.
Like most detectives, he’s juggling multiple jobs. The vampire Rudolf Sebestyen is missing, and his half-sister – who’s also a vampire – wants to find him. Clarice Jethroe’s husband Frank has gone missing too. She’s sure it wasn’t voluntary, and she wants him found. Meanwhile, Marianne Smalls’ husband is sure she’s having an affair, and he wants proof to reduce his divorce settlement.
The three cases cross and at times converge, providing Jack with an even bigger puzzle than he thought.
This has the flavour of a 1950s or 1960s detective novel. Turtledove is quite deliberately evoking the period and style, and it works very well. It’s a little slow to get started, perhaps because Turtledove has to get a bit of world building in there too. Still, it doesn’t take long to ramp up, and I was never bored.
The world building is excellent, using touchstones from real history, and some accepted ideas from the fantasy genre, to anchor an original vision of the world as it might be. It was vivid and believable, and made the mystery story seem plausible.
The novel resolves the three cases Jack investigates, but there are some aspects of the world which clearly leave an opening for future novels. Readers are likely to be satisfied with this one – it does very much feel like it has an ending – while still being interested enough to look out for the next in the series.
The characters were vivid too, and although I’m not sure readers will exactly empathise, you’ll certainly understand what they’re feeling and doing and why. Some characters weren’t fully rounded – like Jack’s love interest, Dora Urban. However, this was generally a deliberate reflection of their behaviour, and added to the atmosphere of the novel.
I enjoyed this a great deal. It kind of mashes urban fantasy, alternate history, familiar fantasy tropes, and hard boiled detective fiction all in together to produce an original and interesting world. Add a solid plot and strong characters, and I think most readers will get the same pleasure from it.
If you enjoyed this review, please visit www.otherdreamsotherlives.home.blog to read more.
Jack Mitchell is a private detective in a Los Angeles that doesn’t look very much like the one we know. World War II was fought with different people for different reasons, magic is real, and creatures like zombies and vampires inhabit the city along with the living population.
Like most detectives, he’s juggling multiple jobs. The vampire Rudolf Sebestyen is missing, and his half-sister – who’s also a vampire – wants to find him. Clarice Jethroe’s husband Frank has gone missing too. She’s sure it wasn’t voluntary, and she wants him found. Meanwhile, Marianne Smalls’ husband is sure she’s having an affair, and he wants proof to reduce his divorce settlement.
The three cases cross and at times converge, providing Jack with an even bigger puzzle than he thought.
This has the flavour of a 1950s or 1960s detective novel. Turtledove is quite deliberately evoking the period and style, and it works very well. It’s a little slow to get started, perhaps because Turtledove has to get a bit of world building in there too. Still, it doesn’t take long to ramp up, and I was never bored.
The world building is excellent, using touchstones from real history, and some accepted ideas from the fantasy genre, to anchor an original vision of the world as it might be. It was vivid and believable, and made the mystery story seem plausible.
The novel resolves the three cases Jack investigates, but there are some aspects of the world which clearly leave an opening for future novels. Readers are likely to be satisfied with this one – it does very much feel like it has an ending – while still being interested enough to look out for the next in the series.
The characters were vivid too, and although I’m not sure readers will exactly empathise, you’ll certainly understand what they’re feeling and doing and why. Some characters weren’t fully rounded – like Jack’s love interest, Dora Urban. However, this was generally a deliberate reflection of their behaviour, and added to the atmosphere of the novel.
I enjoyed this a great deal. It kind of mashes urban fantasy, alternate history, familiar fantasy tropes, and hard boiled detective fiction all in together to produce an original and interesting world. Add a solid plot and strong characters, and I think most readers will get the same pleasure from it.
If you enjoyed this review, please visit www.otherdreamsotherlives.home.blog to read more.
March 7, 2025
3 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
In an alternate post-world war Los Angeles full of vampires, zombies, and wizards, Jack Mitchell is a private investigator with a smart-mouthed cat and more debts than clients. Until Dora Urban, a glamorous vampire, hires him to find her half-brother, and Mitchell finds himself tangling with powers well beyond his scope.
Review
I encountered Harry Turtledove’s writing decades ago, via the Krispos of Videssos books. I enjoyed those, but realized that most of his writing was too alternate-history for me. I’ve dipped into a few of his other books with mixed results. But when I saw this fantasy noir offering, I thought I’d give it a try.
I guess what I can say is that the alternate history element is strong and well developed. References to real history are simple enough to figure out – fylfot (swastika) supporters, etc. I’m not normally a fan of vampires and zombies, but those elements work fine. Unfortunately, it’s the detective noir piece that fails. I just didn’t buy Turtledove’s voice on this front. It’s as if he’s trying to amalgamate noir tropes and standards by imitation rather than organically; it all feels like a clumsy copy.
Beneath the awkward voice and jokes that mostly don’t land, there’s a pretty good story. It’s not groundbreaking, but it fits its territory – poor but capable detective, femme fatale (more literally than usual), etc. There’s even a sarcastic cat.
This was an ARC, and seemingly less polished than most. Almost no typos, but there’s a lengthy piece of description (of a zombie) that’s repeated verbatim once, and paraphrased again. There’s pretty hefty continuity error regarding a lawyer. Hopefully these issues will be cleared up before publication, but that’s in ten days, so I doubt it.
All in all, a decent book and start to a series, but more for Turtledove and alternate history fans than noir aficionados.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
Summary
In an alternate post-world war Los Angeles full of vampires, zombies, and wizards, Jack Mitchell is a private investigator with a smart-mouthed cat and more debts than clients. Until Dora Urban, a glamorous vampire, hires him to find her half-brother, and Mitchell finds himself tangling with powers well beyond his scope.
Review
I encountered Harry Turtledove’s writing decades ago, via the Krispos of Videssos books. I enjoyed those, but realized that most of his writing was too alternate-history for me. I’ve dipped into a few of his other books with mixed results. But when I saw this fantasy noir offering, I thought I’d give it a try.
I guess what I can say is that the alternate history element is strong and well developed. References to real history are simple enough to figure out – fylfot (swastika) supporters, etc. I’m not normally a fan of vampires and zombies, but those elements work fine. Unfortunately, it’s the detective noir piece that fails. I just didn’t buy Turtledove’s voice on this front. It’s as if he’s trying to amalgamate noir tropes and standards by imitation rather than organically; it all feels like a clumsy copy.
Beneath the awkward voice and jokes that mostly don’t land, there’s a pretty good story. It’s not groundbreaking, but it fits its territory – poor but capable detective, femme fatale (more literally than usual), etc. There’s even a sarcastic cat.
This was an ARC, and seemingly less polished than most. Almost no typos, but there’s a lengthy piece of description (of a zombie) that’s repeated verbatim once, and paraphrased again. There’s pretty hefty continuity error regarding a lawyer. Hopefully these issues will be cleared up before publication, but that’s in ten days, so I doubt it.
All in all, a decent book and start to a series, but more for Turtledove and alternate history fans than noir aficionados.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
June 15, 2025
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.
Harry Turtledove’s Twice as Dead is a smoky jazz riff of a novel—equal parts noir detective yarn and supernatural fever dream, set in a postwar Los Angeles where the shadows hide more than just secrets. Vampires, zombies, wizards, and a sarcastic talking cat all swirl through this genre-bending mystery that feels like Raymond Chandler wandered into a séance and decided to stay for the whiskey.
At the center is Jack Mitchell, a hard-boiled PI with a lighter wallet than conscience, who’s hired to solve two seemingly unrelated cases: a missing man and a cheating wife. But nothing in this LA is straightforward. The missing man’s sister is a vampire, the city’s crawling with vepratoga (a dangerous new drug), and Jack’s own home goes up in flames before he can say “double-cross.” The deeper he digs, the more the cases tangle into a web of corruption, magic, and undead menace.
Turtledove’s world-building is rich with pulpy atmosphere—Central Avenue jazz clubs, corrupt politicians, and ghostly apparitions all jostle for space in a city that feels both familiar and eerily askew. The prose leans into noir pastiche, sometimes a little too heavily, but there’s a charm in its commitment to the bit. Jack’s voice is gruff, cynical, and occasionally poetic in that “I’ve-seen-too-much” kind of way, and the wisecracking cat? Surprisingly endearing.
What sets Twice as Dead apart isn’t just its supernatural flair—it’s the way it uses fantasy to amplify noir’s classic themes: moral ambiguity, the cost of truth, and the ghosts (literal and figurative) that haunt us. The plot occasionally stumbles under the weight of its own ambition, and some continuity hiccups may jar the attentive reader, but the ride is worth it.
For fans of urban fantasy who like their magic gritty and their detectives grizzled, Twice as Dead is a stylish, blood-soaked waltz through a city where even the shadows have teeth.
Harry Turtledove’s Twice as Dead is a smoky jazz riff of a novel—equal parts noir detective yarn and supernatural fever dream, set in a postwar Los Angeles where the shadows hide more than just secrets. Vampires, zombies, wizards, and a sarcastic talking cat all swirl through this genre-bending mystery that feels like Raymond Chandler wandered into a séance and decided to stay for the whiskey.
At the center is Jack Mitchell, a hard-boiled PI with a lighter wallet than conscience, who’s hired to solve two seemingly unrelated cases: a missing man and a cheating wife. But nothing in this LA is straightforward. The missing man’s sister is a vampire, the city’s crawling with vepratoga (a dangerous new drug), and Jack’s own home goes up in flames before he can say “double-cross.” The deeper he digs, the more the cases tangle into a web of corruption, magic, and undead menace.
Turtledove’s world-building is rich with pulpy atmosphere—Central Avenue jazz clubs, corrupt politicians, and ghostly apparitions all jostle for space in a city that feels both familiar and eerily askew. The prose leans into noir pastiche, sometimes a little too heavily, but there’s a charm in its commitment to the bit. Jack’s voice is gruff, cynical, and occasionally poetic in that “I’ve-seen-too-much” kind of way, and the wisecracking cat? Surprisingly endearing.
What sets Twice as Dead apart isn’t just its supernatural flair—it’s the way it uses fantasy to amplify noir’s classic themes: moral ambiguity, the cost of truth, and the ghosts (literal and figurative) that haunt us. The plot occasionally stumbles under the weight of its own ambition, and some continuity hiccups may jar the attentive reader, but the ride is worth it.
For fans of urban fantasy who like their magic gritty and their detectives grizzled, Twice as Dead is a stylish, blood-soaked waltz through a city where even the shadows have teeth.
July 23, 2025
Having been a fan of Harry Turtledove’s writing for years, I jumped at the chance for an advanced reader copy of this book. I had hopes for a decent read, as many of the books left me with a tepid reaction, even though I enjoyed reading them. Twice as Dead far exceeded my expectations. It seems to be building on the world Turtledove first began creating in The House of Daniel, which is a world where paranormal creatures exist alongside humans.
Twice as Dead takes place in Los Angeles and has the feel of a noir detective story. Jack Mitchell is the private detective in question. He’s got bills up the wazoo and no clients as the story begins. Into his office comes Dora Urban, a beautiful vampire whose half-brother Rudolf Sebestyen is missing. With gold coins clinking in his pocket, Jack investigates this disappearance. Along the way, he takes on the case of a cuckold husband who wants the goods on his straying wife, and a factory worker who has gone missing. The police have no interest in finding Frank Jethroe, so his wife turns to Jack for help.
Two of the cases have a connection that Jack doesn’t know about yet. That connection is a drug-like substance whose name, spoken aloud, brings in law enforcement. As Jack begins poking around, he draws attention to himself and soon finds himself with no place to live. As he’s explored the various nightclubs for clues as to Rudolph’s disappearance, he’s been accompanied by Dora, and the two fall into an unlikely romance.
To read my complete review please go to Twice as Dead by Harry Turtledove – A Paranormal Noir Adventure
Twice as Dead takes place in Los Angeles and has the feel of a noir detective story. Jack Mitchell is the private detective in question. He’s got bills up the wazoo and no clients as the story begins. Into his office comes Dora Urban, a beautiful vampire whose half-brother Rudolf Sebestyen is missing. With gold coins clinking in his pocket, Jack investigates this disappearance. Along the way, he takes on the case of a cuckold husband who wants the goods on his straying wife, and a factory worker who has gone missing. The police have no interest in finding Frank Jethroe, so his wife turns to Jack for help.
Two of the cases have a connection that Jack doesn’t know about yet. That connection is a drug-like substance whose name, spoken aloud, brings in law enforcement. As Jack begins poking around, he draws attention to himself and soon finds himself with no place to live. As he’s explored the various nightclubs for clues as to Rudolph’s disappearance, he’s been accompanied by Dora, and the two fall into an unlikely romance.
To read my complete review please go to Twice as Dead by Harry Turtledove – A Paranormal Noir Adventure
May 10, 2025
Twice as Dead - Master world-builder and storyteller Harry Turtledove’s latest foray into supernatural noir is an engaging and fast read. I had originally thought it would make a great train book, but it lasted only a couple of rides…. too much fun to stop when the commute did. Great characters (both the main and secondary characters) and believable situations, which are essential in a fantasy, made it a rollicking adventure. Though very different, the story and pacing reminded me of both Brian Vaughn’s “Private Eye” and Matt Carter’s “Pinnacle City.” Both of which scratched my itch for noir-like tales that mix genres, so no surprise that Twice as Dead stirred something in my fiction seeking soul. There were several plot holes that while distracting I am going to assume were left there to have something to build on for the next two books in the series. Does Turtledove ever write something that ISN’T issued as a series…rhetorical, don’t bother answering…. More bothersome than the plot holes for which there may be a reason were the editorial shortcomings. Most noticeably were several instances where nearly the exact wording was used to describe similar events. Similar enough to make this long-time reader suspect that some ‘cut and pasting’ may have been going on, perhaps as a writing technique to keep the process flowing, but better editing should have found those and corrected them. It is distracting, even in a story as fun as this one is, to think… "I just read that,” flip back a few pages and indeed you have. There are also some continuity issues that again should have been caught by the editorial team. Deep into the story like any good reader these pulled me up short…what, I think the character means — – –?
Finally, it features a talking cat! Turtledove captures exactly what I imagine a P.I.’s cat would be like. I recommend this for lovers of fantasy, noir or vampires - if you love all three, it doesn’t get any better. I hope the next two books are out soon!
September 21, 2025
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Twice as Dead is a solid fantasy PI noir mystery by Harry Turtledove. Released 18th March 2025, it's 294 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.
Fans of noir alt-universe PI will likely love this gritty action driven, well constructed mystery set in 1940s Los(t) Angeles featuring the requisite dangerous dames and moral but cynical PI, only the dame is a vampire, and the PI is trying to stay alive and in one piece, more or less. There are creatures of the night aplenty, as well as immersive background scenery. Honestly, it's well written enough and engaging enough that fans of dark fantasy -or- American noir will find a lot to like here.
This is ostensibly the first book of a new series currently on a yearly schedule (book 2 due out in March 2026).
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 12 hours 29 minutes and is capably read by Paul Boehmer. He does the gritty PI noir voice very well, and his vaguely Eastern European (vampire) voices are credible as well. He has a deep baritone, heavy on the whiskey burr, and manages a range of characters of both sexes and widely varying ages without tripping. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.
Four stars, well written, engaging, complex, and satisfying.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Twice as Dead is a solid fantasy PI noir mystery by Harry Turtledove. Released 18th March 2025, it's 294 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.
Fans of noir alt-universe PI will likely love this gritty action driven, well constructed mystery set in 1940s Los(t) Angeles featuring the requisite dangerous dames and moral but cynical PI, only the dame is a vampire, and the PI is trying to stay alive and in one piece, more or less. There are creatures of the night aplenty, as well as immersive background scenery. Honestly, it's well written enough and engaging enough that fans of dark fantasy -or- American noir will find a lot to like here.
This is ostensibly the first book of a new series currently on a yearly schedule (book 2 due out in March 2026).
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 12 hours 29 minutes and is capably read by Paul Boehmer. He does the gritty PI noir voice very well, and his vaguely Eastern European (vampire) voices are credible as well. He has a deep baritone, heavy on the whiskey burr, and manages a range of characters of both sexes and widely varying ages without tripping. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.
Four stars, well written, engaging, complex, and satisfying.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
February 27, 2025
TWICE AS DEAD combines urban fantasy with noir detective stories. Jack Mitchell is a hard-drinking, chain-smoking war veteran who is Black but light enough to look ethically ambiguous. He's living in LA after what would be the equivalent of World War II. In his world the enemy was the fylfot. Different name but same prejudice against Jews.
The first clue that this is an urban fantasy series is that Jack has a cat who talks but is otherwise as self-centered as any other cat. The second clue is that one of the clients who walks in the door is Dora Urban who happens to be a vampire.
Dora wants Jack to find her half-brother Rudolf Sebestyen. As Jack investigates, her find that Rudolf was not an upstanding vampire. He's planned a hit on the local blood bank and he's involved somehow with a new drug that is exciting all kinds of interest in shady circles.
But finding Rudolf is not Jack's only case. Celeste Jethroe has come to hire Jack to find out what happened to her missing husband Frank. He worked at U.S. Rubber and disappeared one day after work and after an argument with his supervisor.
Jack's third case has to do with proving that the wife of a local newspaper editor is having an affair.
The whole story was filled with questions to be answered and narrated by the very cynical Jack. The worldbuilding with includes vampires, wizards and zombies juxtaposes with the corrupt cops and built-in prejudices of the time period.
It was an engaging story with interesting characters.
The first clue that this is an urban fantasy series is that Jack has a cat who talks but is otherwise as self-centered as any other cat. The second clue is that one of the clients who walks in the door is Dora Urban who happens to be a vampire.
Dora wants Jack to find her half-brother Rudolf Sebestyen. As Jack investigates, her find that Rudolf was not an upstanding vampire. He's planned a hit on the local blood bank and he's involved somehow with a new drug that is exciting all kinds of interest in shady circles.
But finding Rudolf is not Jack's only case. Celeste Jethroe has come to hire Jack to find out what happened to her missing husband Frank. He worked at U.S. Rubber and disappeared one day after work and after an argument with his supervisor.
Jack's third case has to do with proving that the wife of a local newspaper editor is having an affair.
The whole story was filled with questions to be answered and narrated by the very cynical Jack. The worldbuilding with includes vampires, wizards and zombies juxtaposes with the corrupt cops and built-in prejudices of the time period.
It was an engaging story with interesting characters.
February 24, 2025
I had to sit for a day before writing this review because this book was so good! It was a bit like a mix between The Dresden Files and The Nightside Series if they were set in the forties. There was so much going on in the absolute best way. I’ve been jonesing for a new series like this, and I was not disappointed. (And yes, it was a great example of social commentary, but that’s not why I liked it.) This was pure urban fantasy at its finest. Have I said enough good things about it? I don’t think so. The characterization was on point, the pacing and tone were incredible, and let’s not forget the cat. I think he is the model for all modern cats in the world. The MC’s snark was perfection. I laughed my way through it, even as people kept disappearing and dying. I genuinely can’t wait to read more of this series. If you are a fan of Butcher and Green, you will love this story!
Huge thanks to Arc Manor | CAEZIK SF & Fantasy and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!
Huge thanks to Arc Manor | CAEZIK SF & Fantasy and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!
February 25, 2025
Looking for your next noir urban fantasy fix? Pick up Twice as Dead and follow Jack Mitchell as the chain-smoking private eye works out what is going on in the City of Angels that contains vampires, zombies, wizards and jazz. Dora Urban, a Hungarian vampire immigrant hires Jack to find out what has happened to Rudolf Sebestyen, her half brother, who has disappeared. Lamont Smalls is looking for dirt on his wife who he thinks is cheating on him. While working these cases, Jack also gets involved in a missing husband case. Then there are the jazz clubs that Jack and Dora visit which help set the atmosphere for the book.Without giving too much away, Jack, his talking cat, Dora, and other folks that become part of the case manage to do some good despite the push-back from the Establishment. A very satisfying noir mystery.
Thanks Netgalley and Arc Manor/CAEZIK SF & Fantasy for the chance to read this title!
Thanks Netgalley and Arc Manor/CAEZIK SF & Fantasy for the chance to read this title!
July 25, 2025
Jack Mitchell is the ideal of a noir privated detective, and things take an interesting turn when he is visited by Dora Urban, who is hoping to hire him for a case. Her half-brother Rudolf has gone missing, and she is desperate to know what happened to hm. At the same time, Jack is also beig hired by Lamon Smalls is suspicious of his wife Marianne and believes she is having an affair.
This all sounds like any noir novel you would pick up, but things are made more interesting as the reader learns that the world captured in the book is filled with all sorts of creatures of the occult, including vampires, wizards, and zombies along-side the jazz clubs of the 1920's. It is filled with danger and adventure for Jack ... and even a little bit of ramance. I found this to be a pretty fun read that is quite different from most other things I have read from Turtledove. Fans of Jim Butchers Dresden Files books will find a lot to like in this one.
This all sounds like any noir novel you would pick up, but things are made more interesting as the reader learns that the world captured in the book is filled with all sorts of creatures of the occult, including vampires, wizards, and zombies along-side the jazz clubs of the 1920's. It is filled with danger and adventure for Jack ... and even a little bit of ramance. I found this to be a pretty fun read that is quite different from most other things I have read from Turtledove. Fans of Jim Butchers Dresden Files books will find a lot to like in this one.
September 1, 2025
I have always been a fan of the alternate history genre, but have found Harry Turtledove a little difficult to get into I didn't have a problem with "Twice as Dead." The book is set in the late 1940s or early 1950s and is set in a Los Angeles where magical creatures exist. "Twice as Dead" centers around Jack Mitchell, a down and out private eye who takes on the case of a beautiful vampire searching for her half-brother, a publishing magnate who believes his wife is having an affair and a woman searching for her husband who disappeared.
"Twice as Dead" does not fall into the alternate history genre, according to the author, but still manages to entertain and educate. As someone who is working on his own vampire novel, I can say I picked up a few things from this book.
This novel is part of the "City of Shadows" series and the next book, "Lightning Runes" should be out sometime next year.
"Twice as Dead" does not fall into the alternate history genre, according to the author, but still manages to entertain and educate. As someone who is working on his own vampire novel, I can say I picked up a few things from this book.
This novel is part of the "City of Shadows" series and the next book, "Lightning Runes" should be out sometime next year.
December 31, 2024
Wow, 75 and still going strong as the dean of alternate-historical fantasy.
The opening shows us how desperate a gumshoe Jack is, with the notion of undead infestation in LA casually dropped on the way to open the door for a beautiful dame. Lots of specific details tell us the rules of magic in this world and that she’s a vampire before he figures it out. He interviews low-lifes, cats, and ghosts. A lot of poking around finds that his case (one of three) is linked to a drug developed by the Nazis that even they wouldn’t use. The tone has echoes of Lovecraft Country or LA Confidential with supernaturals. Though the plot progresses slowly at first, the ending had several Call of Cthulhu adventure-style boss battles and revelations.
My only negative comment is the narrator digresses too much about writing, which feels out of character.
The opening shows us how desperate a gumshoe Jack is, with the notion of undead infestation in LA casually dropped on the way to open the door for a beautiful dame. Lots of specific details tell us the rules of magic in this world and that she’s a vampire before he figures it out. He interviews low-lifes, cats, and ghosts. A lot of poking around finds that his case (one of three) is linked to a drug developed by the Nazis that even they wouldn’t use. The tone has echoes of Lovecraft Country or LA Confidential with supernaturals. Though the plot progresses slowly at first, the ending had several Call of Cthulhu adventure-style boss battles and revelations.
My only negative comment is the narrator digresses too much about writing, which feels out of character.
January 8, 2025
As much as I’m having a hard time believing this, I’ve never read a book by this author until now. I think it’s because, after reading this, his books are on the cusp of what I like. For instance, I requested this book even though I’m not fond of books that take place in the past. Anyway, I did read this latest, and I’m glad I did. The author’s writing, buildup, and plotting is great, even though there were a couple things that weren’t a personal preference, not a problem with the book. His way of immersing the reader in the timeframe is exceptional without losing sight of the characters and what’s happening. Fans of his are sure to be happy with this series starter, and I will probably read the next one. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.
February 15, 2025
One of my all-time favorite urban fantasies is The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, also by Turtledove, so I was thrilled when I saw this was coming out! In this, we have a hard-boiled detective (similar to Sam Spade) except the blonde who walks in is a vampire. The plot was not nearly as tightly woven as The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, but I found myself enjoying it quite a lot nonetheless. A somewhat leisurely, but fun read.
(A note: Since Turtledove is essentially recreating the a Dashiell Hammett-esque 1930s world, he uses the polite language of the 1930s to describe different races, some of which are quite impolite today. Once I got used to it, it was ok, but there was a lot of wincing in the first chapters.)
(A note: Since Turtledove is essentially recreating the a Dashiell Hammett-esque 1930s world, he uses the polite language of the 1930s to describe different races, some of which are quite impolite today. Once I got used to it, it was ok, but there was a lot of wincing in the first chapters.)
July 27, 2025
Let's just agree that if Jack drank like normal people this would have been a novella.
Other than that, it's a good story with interesting characters, and the worldbuilding is sufficient to allow for the implied sequel(s). We know Harry can churn 'em out at a nearly-Asimovian pace, so we should know soon.
And Harry? Dial back the that-was-too-easy where they see Bird at club A and again at club B, then do the same another day with Lady Day. If it's a pre-established handshake deal between the clubs, tell us; otherwise Old Man Mose would say it stinks of narrativium.
Especially when in the last parts we just
Other than that, it's a good story with interesting characters, and the worldbuilding is sufficient to allow for the implied sequel(s). We know Harry can churn 'em out at a nearly-Asimovian pace, so we should know soon.
And Harry? Dial back the that-was-too-easy where they see Bird at club A and again at club B, then do the same another day with Lady Day. If it's a pre-established handshake deal between the clubs, tell us; otherwise Old Man Mose would say it stinks of narrativium.
Especially when in the last parts we just
March 26, 2025
Needs Editing
I suspect that if Turtledove spent some time editing it, and had an editor who had the power and will to tell him no, he could make a good book about this, the way he did with the Case of the Toxic Spell Dump. This hypothetical good book would be about two-thirds the length, largely eliminating the cases where the same character says or thinks the same thing he already said or thought five hundred times already, and also involving some foreshadowing for and explanation of the climax. Instead he wrote this, which passes the time, but nothing more. Pays for his grandkids' college, I guess.
I suspect that if Turtledove spent some time editing it, and had an editor who had the power and will to tell him no, he could make a good book about this, the way he did with the Case of the Toxic Spell Dump. This hypothetical good book would be about two-thirds the length, largely eliminating the cases where the same character says or thinks the same thing he already said or thought five hundred times already, and also involving some foreshadowing for and explanation of the climax. Instead he wrote this, which passes the time, but nothing more. Pays for his grandkids' college, I guess.
March 31, 2025
Jack Mitchell, war veteran, is a Private eye in Los Angeles when a beautiful vampire, Dora Urban, hires him to find her missing half-brother. Harry Turtledove sets his detective tale in a world with vampires, talking cats, and an angel that works as an elevator to the higher part of the city. It is a world where people can choose to be Twice as Dead (hard from Caezik SF & Fantasy) by being zombified and soulless. Jack’s other cases include a divorce case, and a missing Tire plant worker. There’s a drug that even mentioning the name will bring police attention. I’d love to see more of Jack’s cases.
January 22, 2025
I loved this book. The story is well-told and well-paced; it was difficult to put the book down. The characters and world-building are excellent and there are many passages so well-written that I would read them over several times. I found the noir attitude compelling but I did have to look up some words. Overall this is a great read and I look forward to more books in the series. Thank you to Netgalley and CAEZIK SF & Fantasy for the advance reader copy.
March 5, 2025
A dame walks into a P.I.’s office looking for help with a missing person case. Only this dame is a vampire. A well written urban fantasy noir mystery reminiscent of the books from the 30s and 40s but set in an alternate version of LA populated by various paranormal beings.
If you like the Harry Dresden or Tales From the Nightside books you’ll probably enjoy this. One word of caution though, due to the period the book is set in some of the racial terms used may be offensive to some readers.
If you like the Harry Dresden or Tales From the Nightside books you’ll probably enjoy this. One word of caution though, due to the period the book is set in some of the racial terms used may be offensive to some readers.
December 16, 2025
Harry Turtledove has long been acknowledged as a master of alternative history science fiction. In "Twice as Dead" he shows additional prowess in mastering both the noir-suspense and urban fantasy genres. Set in a gritty and hardboiled late 40s LA, this novel features believable and compelling characters who are representative of the era who are enmeshed in a hardboiled and action packed mystery enhanced by the presence of vampires, zombies and arcane forces.
4.5 stars out of 5 rounded to 4.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Ark Manor, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
4.5 stars out of 5 rounded to 4.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Ark Manor, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
March 21, 2025
Very good story.
I really enjoyed this. Jack grew on me quickly and his relationship with Dora was fascinating. There were enough tidbits of information that I liked--Wrigley Field, who knew? Well, not me, but I'm not the best baseball fan. And there is a very good cat.
I really enjoyed this. Jack grew on me quickly and his relationship with Dora was fascinating. There were enough tidbits of information that I liked--Wrigley Field, who knew? Well, not me, but I'm not the best baseball fan. And there is a very good cat.
March 24, 2025
Enjoyable read. One of the plot lines was cleared up a little too deus ex machina. It seemed like the author was rushing to push a bunch of story into one book. I liked the writing but it did seem a little assembly line built.
April 6, 2025
Another fun jaunt in a different direction with Harry Turtledove!
Another fun jaunt in a different direction with Harry Turtledove!
Excellent story, well told and well paced. Also, I enjoyed the Easter eggs hidden in the narrative. I do wonder though, how many I missed.
Another fun jaunt in a different direction with Harry Turtledove!
Excellent story, well told and well paced. Also, I enjoyed the Easter eggs hidden in the narrative. I do wonder though, how many I missed.
April 23, 2025
Just finished Twice as Dead by Harry Turtledove. This was a fun read! It's a fantastic mix of a hard drinking detective story and urban fantasy, with vampires, zombies, and more. Great world building and wonderful characters, especially the talking cat. Highly recommended.
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