White Bizango Paperback – June 10, 2014

Your name is John Lafcadio and you're a police detective in Iberville, Louisiana. You're wrestling with a man who attempted to kidnap a small boy when he suddenly spits in your face and you're completely paralyzed! You can think, see and hear but can't even blink your eyes. When your colleagues find you, there is no respiration or pulse and you're declared dead. As you lay there, you begin to wonder if maybe you really are dead but just haven't left your body yet. As the detectives and forensic people work around your body you know what the routine will be; since you're a police detective killed in the line of duty, your autopsy will be fast tracked. And you begin to fear that you'll still be aware when the cutting starts.Good story, fast paced, I liked it and would recommend it.

About a month ago I came across a brilliant short story called Magpie in a various author anthology called  Final Shodows . I have been eagerly looking for other work by Gallagher which disappointingly, even though he seems to have written a substantial amount of novels and short stories is a bit hard to come across on the shelves. His publishers really need to pick up their act with distribution but anyway I'm getting off the point, White Bizango is the first of his novels that I have managed to come across and I am definitely going to keep searching for the rest as it is pure quality. I especially enjoyed the death point of view from the corpse's viewpoint chapters (without giving away what's going on here) it is a unique and sensational read. Definitely get this book, (the cover picture of the version I have has nothing to do with the story, nor does the blurb on the back really indicate what it is about, so don't be put off by it if you've got the same one). It is I guess not that much longer in length than a short story but it is still great value for money.Police officer John Lafcadio comes across a weird suspect while investigating a shopping centre child abduction case. Barely escaping with his life and only because of the knowledge of two police officers specialising in cult crimes he is determined to track down the man responsible who is also leaving a trail of terrified victims in his wake.

A Southern thriller from the horror writer, introduced by Joe Lansdale (who, sadly, hasn't done a voodoo mystery of his own).In the brief space of this short novel, Gallagher tells a fairly straightforward mystery here, with a pretty conventional embittered detective as protagonist. The method, however, is anything but mundane, as the mystery introduces the politics and ethics of voodoo and its practitioners.A quick read, but a good one, with an evocative setting. The pace is erratic, but the goal seems to be to create a mood and feel - a 'bayou noir'. It works, if you don't get too bogged down in the slow bits.

Very good read for the price.

Very good, enjoyed it a lot, but nothing has managed to equal Valley of Lights for me.