To The Last Page

The first book in Jonathan L. Howard's Johannes Cabal series provides a good introduction to a great character with lots of potential. Not all of it is realised in Johannes Cabal the Necromancer , but it still has all the trademark wit and humour in the original comic manner that Howard deals with the material.  It doesn't quite live up to the Gothic horror expectations that are laid out in the hilarious opening (and closing) sequences where the necromancer Cabal makes an unannounced visit to Hell. Not having completed the exhaustive paperwork and, worse, still living, which is very much against regulations, he proposes a wager with Satan for the return of the soul he willingly parted with in order to further his nefarious researches. Not many come out well from a wager with Satan, but Cabal is a tricky character. What you can't quite see however is Cabal as the owner and master of ceremonies of a old-fashioned travelling carnival with all its sideshows. It doesn't quit...

There's not a lot of raising of the dead going on in Johannes Cabal the Detective , the necromancer far too busy striving to keep himself from getting into that state himself, with little chance of resurrection. Imprisoned for attempting to steal an occult book from a library in Mirkarvia, he finds his stay of probable execution at least temporarily put aside at the behest of the nation's military commander. The Emperor has unfortunately expired before he can rouse his citizens to invade their neighbours, and a necromancer can come in handy for just such an eventuality. Once accomplished, not without ensuring some characteristic mischief and petty but necessary payback for the indignities suffered while in a Mirkarvian prison cell, much of the remainder of Johannes Cabal the Detective sees the necromancer acting indeed as a detective. On an airship. That's his mode of transport escaping from the Mirkavian authorities in the guise a minor civil servant for the Department of...