Title: The Cursed Bones of Sergeant Boom!
Author: Inka York
Date: 2023
Publisher: Inklore
Quote: "Despite the dog's small stature, and indeed despite his death and decay, he was still in possession of a mighty, rumbling bark..."
That's Sergeant Boom! (the exclamation mark is part of his name to make his gravestone easy to identify, though he doesn't seem to stay buried in it).
A character in this story visits the grave of Douglas Adams, presumably seeking inspiration. I can't say that this novel shows much. It's part of a series constructed from all the occult elements usually omitted from whimsical witch and vampire stories. All of the main characters are undead in one way or another; this is another fantasy/mystery where solving the mystery requires readers to keep track of who's able to do what. Some are long-undead British monarchs. Some can only send out feeble thought waves; some have bodies solid enough for mating or fighting.
Both of the couples are male. There are no heterosexual couples or romances in this book. There's a daughter, now 130 years old, looking 30, and still bratty, and a sister, and passing reference to a wife who's not active in the story. Basically this is a story for men who are interested almost exclusively in other men.
I didn't laugh out loud, though a few throwaway references to history and literature did strike me as mildly funny, or at least punny. (The homosexual characters don't indulge their emotions in the stereotypical "leave me alone, I'm insane but harmless" way, but one of the undead monarchs is indeed a "screaming queen." The main character is called Kane and his home base is a store called Kane & Fable.) I don't expect even its intended audience will rate this series up there with the works of Adams, Pratchett, or Neil Gaiman, but if you've collected all the novels of the dead British comic novelists of our time and are waiting impatiently for the next one from the surviving novelist, you might smile over this series.
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