Death Shall Come

Review of DEATH SHALL COME:
A COUNTRY HOUSE MURDER MYSTERY
by Simon Green
(An Ishmael Jones Mystery)

I am ecstatic over this series, which more than capably combines science fiction, paranormal elements, horror, and mystery into a thrilling stew in each and every novel. Ishmael Jones (“Call me Ishmael. Ishmael Jones”) is a category all his own: at one time, he was an extraterrestrial alien. In 1963 his ship crashed in rural Britain, and he was transformed into a human form, while maintaining his exceptional powers and skills. His tenure is seemingly endless, while the humans he encounters of course age and die. In this series, he has partnered with Penny Belfour, after her family and family home were attacked by a vampire. Penny knows he is “something else,” but not what, and loves him despite it. His role is to protect humanity from “otherness,” which often comes in the form of danger and destruction.

The Organization, which contracts Ishmael, is shadowy and beyond covert. His only contact is The Colonel, who summons Ishmael to his wife's family home, Cardavan House, to protect the family following the acquisition of a very rare, previously unknown, mummy, that of the first Cleopatra, whose record is lost to antiquity. Penny hopes for something out of her beloved mummy horror films, but what she and Ishmael discover, and have to combat, is far worse; and for Ishmael, far closer to home.

'Call me Ishamael' you wouldn't be blamed for thinking that you were about to start reading Herman Melville's classic Moby Dick. But this is a series which is set to be a completely different type of classic.

This is the second book I've read in the Ishmael Jones series by Simon R Green and the fourth in the series overall. Which answers the question do I need to read them in order? No. There is always a little background at the beginning that fills you in on who Ishmael is and what's going on with him.

Ishmael Jones (which isn't his real name) is an alien who crash landed on earth 50 years ago, his spaceship turned him into something resembling a human and he's since joined the service of a covert government operation led by the strict Colonel.

The Ishmael books all feature a mystery which Ishmael and his endearing human girlfriend Penny have to solve. This time they're carted off to the mysterious house of the Colonel's wife's family who hold one of the largest private collections of Egyptian artefacts in the world. Including a brand new mummy that they want to show off.

The Ishmael Jones series is an excellent example of genre blending, imagine Scoony Doo meets My Parents are Aliens for grownups. Ishmael and Penny have an amusing relationship and the books are just generally very easy reads, they're not particularly long and the mysteries are hard to solve because it's usually something supernatural at work and hiding in plain sight.

I've really enjoyed this series so far and hope there will be some more if only to determine Ishamael's true origins. Will he ever know where he came from and why?