DETECTIVE DEATH

A god of death joins a mortal gumshoe investigating myth-related murders in Ebrahimi’s mystery/urban fantasy novel.

Zarik is a Persian god, or “daeva,” usually depicted as female but able to change forms; in this narrative, Zarik takes on a male persona. At the mercy of “the Pull” (the term for what happens when someone summons him), he is called to kill a man named Izak Cayne. Zarik doesn’t remember what led to him causing this mortal’s death and has a few questions, starting with the cryptic note and accompanying map Izak was carrying. These clues ultimately lead him to Scarlett Wolfe, a private eye of sorts, in a modern-day city that the daeva remembers as a village from millennia ago and now finds bafflingly mazelike. Scarlett tackles mysteries with “intuition and possibilities beyond the mundane.” She and Zarik investigate unorthodox murders and mingle with other gods, including one Zarik harbors ill feelings toward. The greatest mystery is Zarik himself; evidently, mortals’ beliefs create mythical beings, but can Zarik evolve beyond his purview to be more than a mere god of death and make his own choices? If so, what’s he going to do with this thing called free will? The author’s tale is a wonderful fusion of mythologies, from Persian and Greek pantheons to the Japanese yōkai. Scarlett makes for a whip-smart sleuth while Zarik puts his shape-shifting skills to good use, taking different forms of humans and animals, including a cat he once knew. While Ebrahimi constructs a solid mystery, the novel’s biggest draw is its cast—the dual protagonists in particular are exceedingly and delightfully complicated, burdened by guilt over certain deaths (whether or not they’re culpable) and prone to bouts of distrust. The author’s lyrical prose animates the narrative, even when relaying the weather: “sunny with the occasional wisp drifting in the blue spaces between buildings.”

Indelible heroes electrify this sublimely bizarre detective story.