I really enjoy Helen Harper's comic fantasy novels. The Lazy Witch series is funny and both Blood Relations and Highland Magic are hilarious. The Bo Blackman series, however, isn't a comedy, despite the inclusion of a comic dog and the opening pairing between Blackman and a ne'erdowell elf. Here, Harper does dark; Blackman becomes increasingly psychopathic as the books move on, and we are treated to those introspective agonisings over personal failings and weaknesses that are the bane of fantasy writing.

Harper seems to want to set up a Continental Op world of political and moral corruption, with a flawed heroine saving the day at great personal cost. But where Hammett's prose is spare, leaving the reader plenty of work to do, Harper turns out volume after volume of a story that really doesn't need more than 200 pages. I guess that's what the market needs for authors to make money these days (although Harper's own single volume Wraith worked pretty well)

While authors can do whatever they like with their vampires, werewolves, fays and other fairy-tale creatures, I do wish Harper had not given us a Rom whose blood has special magical properties just because, well, she's Rom. This just panders to the lazy prejudices of the lazily prejudiced.