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I like hardboiled detective stories and I like fantasy. Simon R. Green's Nightside series enables me to indulge both pleasures. The books are a quick, fun read, kind of a literary sorbet to be consumed between heavier courses. This book, ­The Unnatural Inquire­r is the eighth book in the series.­

First, a bit about the setting. Nightside is­ located in the center of London but not actually part of the London that exists in our world. The sun never shines in Nightside and it is always 3 A.M. It is a place of decadence where any perversion can be found. Men, monsters, and gods co-mingle. It contains the oldest pub in the world, Strangefellows, as well as the street of gods where gods who have falen out of favor in our world have temples and try to attract followers. It is a fairly common occurance for time slips to open and deposite people and things from the past or future. It is very dangerous and you can be eaten by entities masquerading as a house, taxies, or even ambulances. Part of the fun in reading these books are the supernatural analogues of our world: cell phones with exorcism buttons, office computer systems that come from the future, and the subject of this book, The Unnatural Inquirer, a tabloid newspaper whose offices have to be hidden in a pocket universe and whose reporters are often shot at on sight.

In this world lives John Taylor, a private detective in a white trench coat. Like many of the residents of Nightside, he has a gift. His gift allows him to find things, people and objects. He can use his gift to see the source of something and act upon it. Ok, that sounds cryptic but I don't want to give too much away. ­

The book opens with a small case, kind of a teaser to get us into the story. John and his love, the lethal  bounty hunter Shotgun Suzie, track down someone who has annoyed the authority of Nightside, the mysterious Walker. Later, John is hired by The Unnatural Inquirer to locate Pen Donavon who says he has a DVD showing proof of the afterlife. John is partnered with a perky, half-demon, girl reporter named Betty Divine who is writing a story on a day in in the life of John Taylor. Other people want the DVD and others don't want the DVD ever seen.

I think the DVD is a MacGuffin, a reason for Green to further define the structure of Nightside, to add to the mythos and expose more of its weirdness. I'm not complaining though; I find the books great fun. If you are interested, start at the beginning with Something from the Nightside so you get the backstory as it is revealed.