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Nightingale's Lament (Nightside, Book 3) By Simon R. Green ( Ace )
Release Date: 2004-04-27
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Product Description
In the Nightside, the hidden heart of London where it's always 3 AM, Detective John Taylor must find an elusive singer known as The Nightingale. Her silken voice has inexplicably lured many a fan to suicide--and Taylor is determined to stop her, before the whole neighborhood falls under her trance. But to catch the swift-winged Nightingale, he'll have to hear the deadly music--and survive.
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 Third times the charm ( sloggoth )
In this, the third installment of Simon R. Green's Nightside series, the author seems to finally relax and not obsess as much over the reader's understanding how strange the Nightside is in every paragraph. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of new oddities taking up the pages here but it seems we are more in a groove now, going along with John Taylor, the noirish detective who lives in the Nightside, the utterly alien and magical dark underbelly of London. He gets hired to find things, since he has a psychic gift that prevents anything from staying hidden from him for very long. While this makes him a great detective, it also makes him a target for plenty of powerful beings that also reside in the Nightside who consider him a danger.
This story starts out with what amounts to a short story encased in one chapter where Taylor tries to figure out who or what is sabotaging Prometheus, Inc's power station, which provides over 12% of the power to the Nightside. The brief interlude ends with a bang and with Taylor on the run, doing his best to avoid Walker, the representative of the authorities in the Nightside who hired him to do the job because of the trouble he caused by solving the case.
Soon after, Taylor is hired by the father of a up and coming singer, Rossingol, who is being managed and kept under wraps by the Cavendish's, a husband and wife team...or perhaps brother and sister team. No one is quite sure. Her father just wants to make sure she is safe, since things have changed ever since she came under their protective wings. On top of this mystery is the fact that there are rumors floating around that every time Rossingol sings members of the audience are committing suicide.
Missing in this tale are some of the secondary characters we have become aquainted with in the first two books, including Shotgun Suzie and Razor Eddie, but we are introduced to a couple more allies of Taylor's that are definitely interesting. Julien Advent, the Victorian adventurer and present day Newspaper Publisher, and my favorite sidekick thus far of the series: Dead Boy. We also get to see a few other of Taylor's rivals but there is little in this story besides his new sidekicks that will end up carrying over to future stories here.
I felt as if this tale was the strongest so far from Green on Taylor and the Nightside. The descriptions of this small universe buried inside London were still just as vivid as the two previous stories but he is more focused on the story itself without spending exorbitant amounts of time wowing us with the wonders that make up "The Nightside". I also enjoyed the first chapter as something that pretty much stands on its own as its own story separate from the rest of the book. I am growing more accustomed to Taylor and his unique gift, along with his impressive ability to slip in and out of situations without resorting to that gift (his reputation proceeds him for the most part and even powerful enemies show him a great deal of respect and often buy his bluff that he is more dangerous than he actually is). Green knows how to spin a tale and describe an environment so that you feel a part of it.
I am looking forward to further tales from the Nightside, especially if they are as solid as this story.
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 Song of death ( ea_solinas )
"My name is John Taylor. And if you've come looking for me, either you 're in trouble, or you 're about to be."
That striking little line sums up the general life of Simon R Green'a grizzled anti-hero John Taylor, an unconventional private eye in the "sick, secret magical heart of London." And "Nightingale's Lament," the third book set in the gloriously gruesome Nightside, has a solid little mystery at its center, filled with grotesque characters and weird supernatural happenings. Something is definitely rotten in the state of the Nightside.
While arguing with his secretary about his personal life, John is approached by Parisian banker Charles Chabron, who asks him to help him with his daughter, a nightclub singer called Rossignol. Not only has the girl withdrawn from everyone except her management, but her sad songs are driving people to suicide. And when John starts investigating Rossignol, he finds that she is always in a depressed, drugged stupor and her managers the Cavendishes keep her isolated.
After one of her fans shoots off his own head during a concert, John joins forces with the zombieesque Dead Boy, and starts prowling around for the last singer that the Cavendishes took under their wings. Turns out that Sylvia Sin has become something inhuman and horrifically desirable -- and the Cavendishes have done something even more terrible to Rossignol. Rescuing the trapped nightingale will stretch John's abilities to the limit... and he may not be able to truly save her.
Transvestite superheroes, ghostly lovebirds, temporal triplets, the Victorian Adventurer, Hell's Neanderthals, teenybopper-goth groupies, sleepwalking thugs, and a twerpy probability-shifting guy called Count Entropy. Even if Simon R. Green had no writing ability whatsoever, the world he conjures in the Nightside series would be worth the read -- dripping with darkness, eccentricity and utterly twisted fantasy-noir humor. And boy, is it fun.
And fortunately for us all, he has quite a bit of writing ability -- he can conjure up loads of atmosphere in all corners of the Nightside, from the Necropolis to a sweaty, flower-stinky magical bordello. And Green can induce some shivers even in un-scary scenes, such as when John and Dead Boy are attacked by a vast horde of transvestite divas (" Their painted faces were suddenly strange, twisted, shaped by new and deadly emotions. It was like being suddenly surrounded by a pack of wolves").
He also has a knack for descriptions ("the neon signs were flickering on again, like road signs in Hell"), and a quirky sense of humor to remind us that the Nightside is not the kind of place you go for lighthearted fun ("cars left unattended on Nightside streets tend to be suddenly stolen, or eaten, or even evolve into something else entirely while your back's turned").
John Taylor is your average noir anti-hero -- grizzled, cynical, and always with a smart remark at the ready. His big difference from a Raymond Chandler detective is that his mother was apparently some kind of uber-demon. It's a little annoying that he handles everything by saying "I'm John Taylor" and expecting instant quivers, though. But he works well with the pragmatic, ghoulish, booze-swigging Dead Boy, and his sympathy for the tragic Rossignol -- whose drugged stupor is quite creepy -- is immensely touching.
Stardom always has a price, and that price appears to be much, much higher in the Nightside. Simon R. Green's "Nightingale's Lament" is a solid little noir mystery tinged with magic, and more than its fair share of the grotesque.
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More Dead Boy please! ( karissa35 )
This is the third book in the Nightside series by Simon Green. It was an excellent and very creative story.
John Taylor is contacted by Charles Chabron to find out the whereabouts of his daughter Rossingol. Rossingol came to the Nightside to hit it big as a singer. She has signed up with some new managers, the Cavendishes, and is selling out all of her shows. Her success is coming with a strange side effect; after hearing her sing many of her fans commit suicide. As Taylor struggles to figure out what has been done to Rossingol, he finds out her managers are more dangerous than he ever imagined.
This series just seems to be getting better and better. The cast of characters is creative, amusing, and very colorful. I loved Julien Advent and Dead Boy. Dead Boy in particular added a lot of wry humor and fun to the book. The Nightside continues to be a surprising and darkly amusing environment. I don't know how Green thinks up all of this stuff but the surprises and creative environment flies at you from all sides. The writing is action packed, descriptive, and moves along at a fast clip. The story is, once again, fairly self-contained.
The overlying doom of what John Taylor is and who his mother is still hovers over the overall story arc. So far I have just absolutely loved this series. I want to go out right away and buy all of the books!
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Urban fantasy at its best
This is the third book in the Nightside series and all I can say is the series just keeps getting better. I picked up the first one in the series on a whim and loved it so much I bought the next four through Amazon. The Nightingale's Lament is fabulous. The character development is great. This book as with the other is funny, poignant and horrifying at turns. Though many of the characters our completely outlandish they have such an element of truth and realness at their cores that they are believable. I would highly recommend this series to those that like their urban fantasy with a touch of hope and heart. I would recommend this series to fans of Charles De Lint.
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Sing a song to die for ( martyds )
The world created by Simon Green is unique and intriguing. The Nightengale is a great story about a "lost" singer. With demented owners and death all over the place it is up to one man to figure out and stop what is happening.
John Taylor is a private detective with a gift at finding things. Including trouble. He has a "reputation" in the Nightside, good or bad is another story in itself.
I highly recommend this series of books to anyone with an open mind.
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