Title: Corpselight
Author: Angela Slatter
Series: Verity Fassbinder #2
Publication Date: July 11th 2017
Synopsis: "Life in Brisbane is never simple for those who walk between the worlds.
Verity's all protecting her city, but right now that's mostly running surveillance and handling the less exciting cases for the Weyrd Council - after all, it's hard to chase the bad guys through the streets of Brisbane when you're really, really pregnant.
An insurance investigation sounds pretty harmless, even if it is for 'Unusual Happenstance'. That's not usually a clause Normals use - it covers all-purpose hauntings, angry genii loci, ectoplasmic home invasion, demonic possession, that sort of thing - but Susan Beckett's claimed three times in three months. Her house keeps getting inundated with mud, but she's still insisting she doesn't need or want help...until the dry-land drownings begin.
V's first lead in takes her to Chinatown, where she is confronted by kitsune assassins. But when she suddenly goes into labour, it's clear the fox spirits are not going to be helpful."
My thoughts: I love this trilogy, and I love this book. In the first book of the Verity Fassbinder books, Vigil, we met Verity and started to discover a few things about her slightly unusual job description, and the company she keeps, and also a little about her own nature. In Corpselight, we get so much more. We start to learn way more about Verity's family, getting back stories from those she knows (or thought she knew?) and discover even more about the Weyrd world and the people and creatures that reside there.
As this is the second book in the trilogy, I am being even more vague than usual, but I am kind of desperate to chat about this book with someone soon. The characters that Slatter creates in this trilogy are just...fascinating, and flawed, and wonderful. Even the 'evil' characters have multiple sides, and Slatter doesn't shy away from showing flaws in her main characters, either. Verity is still one of the most amazing, strong (literally), and awesome characters that I have had the pleasure to read, and, while I know the final book isn't due out til next year, I am already eagerly making grabby hands toward it.
I still love that Slatter has created a world within an already existing city - Brisbane, QLD - and how easily she melds the two together. It comes across as seamless, and I don't always like things set in Australian cities as they can come across as being one-dimensional (just bush, or sand, for example. Or heat.). In Slatter's case, however, the city takes on a new shape, and yet still seems itself. We get to look underneath the cover and discover what the glamour is hiding, and I just adore that. In between my gasps of shock whilst reading this book, there were sighs of happiness and appreciation, and just sheer joy (although a lot of those may have come from Verity talking about libraries and books - her love of them rivals my own).
All in all, I highly recommend the Verity Fassbinder books - they are amazing to read, and I am already contemplating a reread.
{I received a review copy of this book from Hachette in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!!!}
A favourite line from the book: 'Even amongst the Weyrd there are death tourists. Who'd have thought I'd be the one to raise the tone of a place?'
You would like this book if: Well, obviously you will love it if you enjoyed the first one; if you are a fan of gentle detective work with darker, fantastical themes, and an alternate world that Normals don't even know.
Tea to drink while reading this book: With the slight Japanese influence from the kitsune, I would say something with Sencha. I am partial to T2's Sencha Vanilla, or Sencha Peach (though my husband is more of a Sencha Mango fan!).
Rating: 9/10
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