TWICE AS DEAD

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

In Harry Turtledove's Twice as Dead, Jack Mitchell is a standard Los Angeles detective in the postwar 1940s, handling cases when they come for him, drinking when they don't, and heavily in debt. What sets him apart is that the world in which he lives is one that is inhabited by vampires, ghosts, and zombies. It is a world in which magic works. However, the various creatures and magic exist in a sort of demimonde, segregated from the world of the living into their own neighborhoods, just as Blacks, whites, and Latinos live in their own neighborhoods.

Coming off a long dry spell, Mitchell is presented with three cases in Twice as Dead. Dora Urban, an ancient, but beautiful vampire, wants his help finding her "half-brother," Rudolf Sebestyen, who was made a vampire by the same creature that turned Dora. Newspaper editor Lamont Smalls has also hired him to determine if Smalls' wife is running around on him. Finally, Clarice Jethroe appears to hire Mitchell to find her husband, Frank, who failed to come home from work. Mitchell takes on all three cases with the hopes of being able to get out from the mountain of debt he has piling over him.

Turtledove follows Mitchell through the seedier side of Los Angeles, visiting newspaper stores that sell all sorts of pornographic materials, various jazz clubs, and eventually stories that market zombies. Turtledove does not allow the reader to forget that this is a Los Angeles with a supernatural element. In addition to the presence of vampires and zombies, Mitchell has a talking cat and frequently makes use of "Angel's Flight," which is a funicular in our world, but an actual angel in Mitchell's world. This Los Angeles also has its more mundane side. The existence of undead minorities doesn't mean that homosexuals, African-Americans, or other minorities are treated any better. Jethroe is convinced the cops won't look for her husband because they are Black and Smalls fears that his wife has hooked up with a Caucasian. All of them, as well as the Jewish proprietor of the porn shop, must deal with crooked cops, embodied, but not limited to, Sergeant Elmer Jackson.

While some of the cases, like tracking down Small's wife, are relatively straightforward, helped by some coincidences, his exploration into Jethroe's disappearance takes him to the US Rubber factory, where Jethroe worked. The company and building seem to be modeled on the old Samson Tire and Rubber Company, which had a facade based on the palace of Assyrian king Sargon II. The enormous statues seem to keep track of everyone who enters and exits the building, offering additional security. US Rubber is not particularly happy with Mitchell's investigations and their efforts to strong arm him extend to local businesses and threats of lawsuits. Throughout his investigations, Dora Urban begins to accompany him and the two eventually enter a relationship, both knowing that the difference in their statuses as a living and undead, as well as their lifespans, promises only one ending.

Turtledove balances the three cases, the setting, and Mitchell's personal life quite well. While the case regarding Smalls' wife is a straight forward spousal cheating case with little mystery, Turtledove uses it to show how Mitchell handles a case, works with, and encourages contacts. The missing persons cases are more complex and incorporate more mystery, with Turtledove providing the reader with adequate clues to guess as the resolution even as he ueses the cases, particularly Jethroe's, to build his world and include the fantastic.

The mix of modern and fantastic setting of Twice as Dead is reminiscent of Turtledove's The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump and his more recent House of Daniel, with a brief reference to the latter showing that the novels do take place in the same world. The world has always been an interesting mix and Mitchell and his cat, Old Man Mose, have a unique relationship. Even if Mitchell has found resolutions to all three of this cases, the world and characters Turtledove has establish have a lot of opportunity for growth and Turtledove will return to them with Lightning Rune, the first planned sequel.

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