Caern Ankou has been missing for several years. All the trails are cold and have been for quite some time. In desperation, her father brings in Laytham Ballard the only former Nightwise in the organization’s history. It’s simple, find the girl, save the soul of his lost love. Thing is, if Ballard wants to find Caern, he’s going to have to chase her across the world to do so. He’ll have to face former friends, old enemies, even the case that’s left him haunted ever since. Nothing to it.

The Night Dahlia is an interesting book in that it earned its way up from a one star read to a three star read and then back down to a two. There were cool ideas, yes, some of the ideas here were really cool. Some of the scenes were cool, but for every cool or impactful scene there are three that nullify anything that could have worked with them.

In a lot of ways, The Night Dahlia doesn’t feel confident. There’s this feeling like Belcher wasn’t comfortable with the emotive weight of key scenes and felt the need to hammer them home shortly after to make sure that the reader gets it. That lack of confidence killed a lot of moments for me, especially towards the end where the story hit a lot of what should have been big character moments only to fritter them away. It all winds up being a bit too neat considering how much of a mess the protagonist is supposed to be.

Laytham Ballard himself is also a big part of why a lot of scenes didn’t work. His whole deal is that he’s a bad man, a fallen hero driven rogue by one bad case. But then he spends enough of his time drunk or high or generally running away from himself and the plot that I could believe that he’s washed up, as so many minor characters tell him, but I have a hard time seeing him as more than that. He can come across as the creepy guy at the occult shop, insisting that he just knows a girl is a sensual creature just by looking and describing nearly every woman he runs into’s breasts. He can come across as slimy for the same reasons, plus his constant dodging of the rules of his contract. But Ballard doesn’t come across as the wicked fallen hero that he seems to want to be. There’s a scene that shows what could have been, where he’s legitimately kind of frightening and inflicts a pretty awful curse on a number of people because one of them annoyed him, but that’s once.

That actually feeds into a lot of my issues with The Night Dahlia and Laytham Ballard in particular. It might be due to missing some of the set up in Nightwise, but a lot of the book just doesn’t land for me. Ballard makes a big point of talking about how his magic style is a mutt thrown together with stuff that works best for him, that could be really cool. But then, when he uses magic, his big thing is using his chakras and pushing energy through them. He uses the specific names of the chakras he’s using but then doesn’t generally explain what that means and the magic isn’t given sensory detail often beyond boiling or bubbling up through whichever chakra he’s using, so it winds up feeling lazy and a little disorienting. Things just sort of pop up that could have been interesting concepts but either aren’t gone into or just feel too out there. Like Ballard having a random musical interlude at a bar while out looking for clues, he just sort of gets pulled into playing a set with some local band. Everyone there knows his old band and is just super pumped for this random guy to jump on with the band they actually came to see. A lot of it feels like is exists in service to Laytham Ballard rather than the plot.

There’s this really great bit about half way through that shows us a younger Ballard on the big life ruining case. It contextualizes him, gives a foundation to a lot of the things he does in the present day of the story. There’s still messy bits to the writing itself, but it does a lot to make me care about that version of Ballard. But then we jump back to the present and a Ballard who is still in the middle of his bad decisions and is still more about doing things his way than getting to the bottom of things. There’s a character arc here, but it’s done in a way that feels sort of fractured. Like I mentioned about, scenes that should have emotional impact happen but either only sort of land or don’t feel like they have any consequences. Of course things not landing makes everything feel less impactful.

That’s where I’m left with The Night Dahlia. It had some nifty ideas, some moments that could have been super solid, and some just odd stuff. But it never landed right. It’s a book that felt like it had earned a single star up to around the half way mark and then nearly earned its way back down. It sort of always felt like I was just a touch out of the loop or hadn’t done my homework. The Night Dahlia gets a two out of five.

Laytham Ballard is picked up off the street where he had flopped face first and taken to meet with Theodore Ankou, a faerie mob boss. Ankou's daughter Caern had disappeared 9 years earlier and her trail has gone quite cold. He's heard that Laytham often succeeds under circumstances like these where others have failed. Laytham accepts the job, and unwillingly, the company of Vigil Burris an elf who works for Ankou. Laytham's main concern seems to be, does Caern want to be found...

Laytham Ballard is a violent, foul-mouthed character. And yet he has his endearing moments. For some reason, in spite of all of his violence and negativity, people still care about him. He is good at what he does. And he is dangerous as all get out as he does it.

It's a fast-paced story. It has lots of things going on. Ballard and Burris burning up Los Angeles between the two of them. There are gangs and magic mixed together. Magic is everywhere in the world of The Night Dahlia. It's just not recognized by everybody. And as if finding Caern wasn't enough, there is a magical assassin after Laytham. In addition to all that, I like that the magical worldview is not limited to just one culture.

This can be read as a standalone. There is enough information given so that you can enjoy it. You will probably want to go back and read the first book, Nightwise, afterward if you haven't already.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It's definitely readable and creative. I would recommend it to people who enjoy urban fantasy and don't mind violence and swearing.

The Night Dahlia is expected out April 3rd, 2018 from Tor Books.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions herein are my own and freely given.

The nitty-gritty: Violent, action-packed and filled with cool world-building details, this is an amped up, supernatural Pulp Fiction on steroids!

I listened to the jangled murmur of traffic on the freeway--all day, all night--it was the constant rhythm of this city. Sirens punctuated by horns, the bone-vibrating thud of bass from car radios below me. L.A. was a champagne call girl with a razor blade hidden between her knuckles. I hated this fucking city, and I had missed her like a junkie misses what his veins scream for.

R.S. Belcher is back with one of speculative fiction’s most infamous characters, Laytham Ballard, a powerful wizards in the Belcher's magical world called the Life. Laytham is a violent son of a bitch, is addicted to smoking, drugs and alcohol, can’t keep a promise to save his life, and will just as soon kill you as shake your hand. If you haven’t read the first book in this series, Nightwise, don’t despair. I was actually thrilled to discover that The Night Dahlia works great as a stand-alone, which is good news for readers who have yet to discover the incomparable charms of Laytham Ballard. (Although I encourage you to read Nightwise when you can, it’s not necessary to understand what’s going on here, but it’s a damn good story!)

Laytham Ballard, previously a member of a secret supernatural crime fighting unit called the Nightwise, is approached one day (or rather he’s kidnapped) and taken to the home of Theodore Ankou, the powerful matriarch of the Ankou family, a fae clan hiding in plain sight in Los Angeles. Ankou’s daughter Caern has been missing for the past nine years, and Ankou has exhausted his extensive resources trying to find her. His last chance is Laytham, who despite his reputation for lying, cheating and killing indiscriminately, is a talented wizard with seemingly infinite resources. Ankou makes Laytham a sweet deal (well, as sweet as can be expected for a couple of powerful and dangerous dudes) if he promises to find and return Caern to her home, and of course, Laytham accepts. Ankou insists on sending a body guard along with Laytham, an elf named Vigil Burris, and Laytham reluctantly agrees to let him tag along.

But once they set out to find Caern’s trail, Laytham and Vigil will be forced to deal with assassins, LA street gangs, drug dealers, porn stars and even monsters from Cambodian mythology, as they search the supernatural underbelly of Los Angeles for a girl whose trail went cold nearly a decade ago.

One of my favorite aspects of Belcher’s world is that magic is EVERYWHERE, but most folks don’t know about it. The author comes up with some creative scenarios as to how magic is entangled in certain true events and how well-known people are involved in that magic. This time around he tackles Charles Manson, who actually plays a fairly big role in the story. I won’t spoil any of the details, but suffice it to say after reading this book, I’m even more creeped out and horrified by Manson than I already was. And because this story takes place in Los Angeles, my backyard, more or less, I loved running across mentions of familiar things, like one of my favorite radio stations (KROQ). Belcher infuses all sorts of things with magic, even phone apps, so be ready for lots of fun surprises while you’re reading The Night Dahlia.

Belcher’s characters are all larger than life, and although I have to give props to Laytham for stealing the show—and keep in mind he’s narrating the story as well, so you see everything from his warped point of view!—there are plenty of other engaging characters. I loved the “buddy film” vibe I got from the relationship between Laytham and Burris. When they are first introduced, they absolutely hate each other. Burris is simply trying to do his job and keep Laytham from getting killed, but Laytham is a lone wolf and wants to do things his way, by himself, so Burris is about as welcome as the plague. It was great fun watching Laytham try to ditch Burris in all sorts of creative and dangerous ways, and I loved that Burris could dish out the pain just as well as Laytham.

A few other favorite characters of mine were a couple of ex-lovers of Laytham’s, Lauren Hawthorne, better known as “the Dragon,” and a dominatrix named Anna, both of whom Laytham left on pretty bad terms. Now of course he needs them in his search for Caern, and they aren’t going to be easy to convince. I also loved computer hacker extraordinaire Grinner, who can uncover just about any deeply buried secret on the internet. As with many of Laytham’s associates, Grinner doesn’t like Laytham very much, but Laytham has an arsenal of resources to use to convince people to help him and so he usually gets what he wants.

A couple of triggers should be mentioned, for those readers who are sensitive (to which Laytham would probably tell you “Then get the fuck out!”). The Night Dahlia is violent as hell, as you can imagine when drug gangs and magical assassins are involved. But as over-the-top as it was in some places, I felt as if much of the violence was there for a reason. There’s also a bunch of swearing, especially when Laytham and Grinner are talking, so if you’re offended by that, then perhaps this isn’t the book for you.

This story is packed with characters, action scenes, and all sorts of cool details, but Belcher keeps it all together with excellent pacing. Despite everything that was happening, never once did I feel lost or overwhelmed. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: my favorite stories are ones that combine great characters, plenty of action, humorous dialog and of course, a bit of heart and emotion. It’s hard to get all these elements just right, but somehow Rod Belcher manages to do it over and over. I fervently hope we haven’t seen the last of Laytham Ballard, and I eagerly await his next adventure. Highly recommended!

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.