Nightingale’s Lament

Nightingale’s Lament (2004) Simon R. Green

In the third Nightside book, John Taylor is hired by a man to find out what has happened to his daughter. She has become a popular singer in Nightside, and he’s worried because he has lost contact with her, so following another job gone bad, John takes the case to find out what is happening to Rossignol.

Again, Walker is on the edges of the story, ending up causing more difficulties for John even if that isn’t his main goal. Although we briefly see Cathy Barrett, she plays only a minor role as John’s secretary, and instead of Suzie Shooter, on this case John gets help from Dead Boy.

What I like about these stories, is that we can see how John solves his cases, and we can also see how things get blown out of proportion by the time tales of those cases hit the streets. Nothing seems too out of the ordinary, until you put it all together, at which point his deeds do seem pretty amazing.

For once John actually has to recuperate from the amount of abuse he takes, although regarding the Somnambulists, one wonders at his performance the second time he deals with them, in comparison with the first. So I am still unsure as to the limit’s of what John can do, although I suppose that John is not supposed to know the full limits of his powers, so perhaps it’s not too unreasonable.

This story was good, but I didn’t like it quite as well as I liked Agents of Light and Darkness. John Taylor is still a much better character than he claims to be, which may be a better explanation as to why some people dislike him, rather than the fact that he is sometimes a jerk. No offense, but he just doesn’t strike me as a jerk. At least he hasn’t yet. He’s willing to make hard choices, yes, but that doesn’t make you a bad person, and it doesn’t make you a jerk.

So another good book, and again, I can’t wait to read the next one.
Rating: 7/10

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