Synopses & Reviews
Ian Tregillis's Something More Than Night is a Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler inspired murder mystery set in Thomas Aquinass vision of Heaven. Its a noir detective story starring fallen angels, the heavenly choir, nightclub stigmatics, a priest with a dirty secret, a femme fatale, and the Voice of God.
Somebody has murdered the angel Gabriel. Worse, the Jericho Trumpet has gone missing, putting Heaven on the brink of a truly cosmic crisis. But the twisty plot that unfolds from the murder investigation leads to something much bigger: a con job one billion years in the making.
Because this is no mere murder. A small band of angels has decided to break out of heaven, but they need a human patsy to make their plan work.
Much of the story is told from the point of view of Bayliss, a cynical fallen angel who has modeled himself on Philip Marlowe. The yarn he spins follows the progression of a Marlowe novel — the mysterious dame who needs his help, getting grilled by the bulls, finding a stiff, getting slipped a mickey.
Angels and gunsels, dames with eyes like fire, and a grand maguffin, Something More Than Night is a murder mystery for the cosmos.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013
Review
"New, independent fantasy from the author of the fine Milkweed Triptych (Necessary Evil, 2013, etc.) — and it's a doozy. Imagine a gumshoe noir yarn, embedded in a fundamentally theology-free medieval heaven underpinned by known or extrapolated scientific cosmological theory. Further posit that a minor fallen angel named Bayliss has assumed the persona of Philip Marlowe — why? Eventually readers will find out....All this barely scratches the surface of what's going on here, as Molly (and the reader) gradually comes to realize that Bayliss may not be the most reliable of narrators and that his Marlowe persona is one part of a vast, intricate plot a billion years in the making. Superlatives seem superfluous. Instead...wow. Just — wow." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Review
"The author of the Milkweed series (Bitter Seeds; The Coldest War; Necessary Evil) delivers a stand-alone tale of treachery in heaven and redemption on Earth. Dry humor and a beautiful homage to Chandler make this cosmic noir story a satisfying read for both fantasy and paranormal mystery fans." Library Journal
About the Author
Ian Tregillis is the author of the Milkweed Tryptich — Bitter Seeds, The Coldest War and Necessary Evil. He lives near Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he works as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In addition, he is a member of the George R. R. Martin Wild Cards writing collective.