Corpselight – Verity Fassbinder Book 2

Corpse Light (Verity Fassbinder Book 2)
Author: Angela Slatter
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Page count: 400pp
Release date: 13th July 2017
Online: @AngelaSlatter, @MeadOlivia, @JoFletcherBooks,
Reviewer: Theresa Derwin

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corpselight-Verity-Fassbinder-Book-2-ebook/dp/B01INGSVZI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500570659&sr=1-1&keywords=corpselight

This long anticipated sequel to Angela Slatter’s sole debut novel Vigil, starts answering those lingering questions from the first book, from the off.
The primary one being; is Verity pregnant?
Serious kudos for Slatter for introducing the plethora of issues that come into play once a strong kick-ass heroine is expecting a baby.
Yes, Verity has lost her super-strength (her inheritance from Weyrd father Grigori) and yes she’s tired, on enforced rest and riddled with hormones, but that doesn’t stop her from kicking ass.
Arse-kicking comes in many forms and the most obvious aspects of Verity’s qualities are her intelligence, her fire, her compassion and her ability to see and understand beyond the obvious. There’s a reason she’s the ‘go-to’ person when it comes to liasons with the Weyrd community.
That, my friends, still makes her a kick-ass heroine.
However, Slatter would’ve been nuts to miss the opportunity to play around with the ‘Pregnancy stuff’.
She has great fun writing other characters who poke fun at her condition, whilst sharing with the reader the unexpected difficulties women face whilst pregnant; fro, getting in and out of chairs, to tiredness, emotions, cranky moments and not being able to drink coffee.
That, in my mind, is sacrilege.
It makes for some hilarious gags along the way.
In the midst of her rest period though, Verity is getting kind of bored doing nothing, so when the chance to do some investigation crops up, she dives in.
A spirit or Weyrd creature is taking slinging mud to a whole new level in the house of lawyer Susan Beckett. The entity is creating the equivalent of ‘la boue’; a vile mixture of blood, mud and sewage seen in the streets of France in the 1700s. But Susan Beckett is claiming for the third time in a row from the ‘Unnatural Happenstance’ proviso of her insurance yet she won’t let the company send in their exorcism style clean up crew; just the actual poo cleaning crew. So, what is she hiding?
She’s also not the first legal person in danger in the novel and it makes me wonder; ‘is the only good lawyer a Dead lawyer’!
Although officially on pregnancy leave, Verity is tasked with finding out the cause of the poo-flinging and exactly what their client is hiding.
Then, to top it off, drowned bodies are turning up nowhere near water, in places like cafes. And Verity is called on again, for her advice.
This book is a sheer delight, and whether you’ve read the first one or not, there’s enough exposition that you can enjoy the Sisters Norn in Little Venice, Bela (current boss and ex-boyfriend and the love/hate/detest relationship between him and current beau David), Ziggi (Weyrd taxi driver/protector and surrogate uncle) and a whole host of exotic ‘other’ characters from diverse cultures.
And; word is out that the Boatman is still after Verity to get his knife back. Yeah, that Boatman.
As for the Council of Five, who govern supernaturals in Australia, they have been ‘retired’ or moved on due to the corruption found by Verity in the last book. Perhaps the surprising addition to the new council is Theo, the youngest Norn sister and a wild card.
Rhonda McIntyre police liaison to the ‘Weyrd’ community is the one who calls on Verity for help again, in this book.
In Vigil, she had been saved by an angel after Verity had pulled a few strings but it doesn’t make her any less grumpy, so she delights in calling her friend ‘fatso’ now she is heavy with child. The banter between Rhonda and Verity is an example of sublime writing.
The title of the novel refers to a couple of corpselights hovering in Verity’s backyard, aka ‘Will ‘O’ ‘the’ Wisp’ or foxfire. At the beginning we’re not entirely sure how all of these mystery pieces slot together, but don’t worry, all will be revealed.
This is urban fantasy at its best and I truly hope Verity and all of her supporting cast get to grow and develop and that the series gets the longevity of characters such as Toby Daye by Seanan Maguire.
Slatter knows how to build tension, weave plot strands, write interesting and fun characters with sparking dialogue and add enough dark that the squeamish may let out the odd “urgh”.
This is pretty much superlative and I predict awards next year for Slatter.
Bloody well done!