The Deadly Daylight – Ash Harrier (Pantera Press, $18.99)
Reviewed by Louise Ward, Wardini Books
Tranquility Funeral Home nestles in the heart of Damocles Cove, and within its walls resides our hero, Alice England.
Alice is 12 years old, organised and literal, solitary and studious. She assists her father, Thaddeus, inpreparing corpses for their funerals, and feels secure in the knowledge that she will grow up to carry on the family business.
Alice has an ability; some items of significance that belonged to a dead person have a resonance, and she is able to access aspects of their life and death when she holds them.
Whilst putting a childhood toy into the casket of George Devenish, Alice becomes convinced that his death was not as simple as reported. George died from exposure to the sunlight to which he was allergic, but why was he out at dawn when he knew the danger?
As Alice investigates she begins to wonder why George was working security on Pier 19 when it wasn't his shift, and what the strange purple lights he saw just before his death have to do with the situation.
Alice is aided in her sleuthing by George's niece Violet, also a sufferer of solar urticaria. The girls are chalk and cheese, Alice clearly neurodivergent and Violet a fan of loud K-Pop and manga.
What they have in common is a lack of friends and the story explores the way in which their differences serve to complement one other. A line that sums Alice up beautifully is this: Give me a corpse and an eyeliner pen over a polishing rag any day of the week.
There's so much going on in this story. It's a direct and straight on look at death as part of life, an intriguing mystery, a story of embracing difference and friendship, and of doing what's right. The tone is light and fun, addressing the dangers the children face and trusting them to work it out and behave appropriately.
I am very much looking forward to another Alice England story. This is the kind of intelligent mystery I loved as a child and still do. Most suitable for readers of about 9 or 10 and up.
