Trigger warnings: suicide, suicidal thoughts, murder
Those of you who have been around a while may remember that last year I posted about The Case of the Green Dressed Ghost and how much I loved it. This is the second book in that series, but this time I missed it on NetGalley so I bought it.
In short, Deadly Doppelganger is about a spirit that is killing people. The victims see a copy of themselves that wants to go home, and then they die. Kester and the rest of Dr Ribero's Agency of the Supernatural investigate, with the "help" of Dr Ribero's arch-nemesis, Larry Higgins.
As with the first book, it is endearingly charming. The plot is quite dark - we are basically trying to identify a serial killing spirit - and yet somehow it remains hopeful and optimistic throughout. There is a strong sense of the Blitz Spirit, keeping everything together while everything else falls apart. No matter how dire things get, there will always be tea.
The setting, I think, also needs to be mentioned. I've left London twice, and I only really understand what the countryside looks like from TV. Somehow, I was able to go right into the heart of Exeter and Lyme Regis with ease. Even with science fiction and fantasy settings that are fully fleshed out, there are times when I cannot completely picture the landscape; I never had that with this book.
Dr Ribero's Agency of Supernatural is full of characters that I want to meet. Kester is young and inexperienced, barely out of university. He focuses on his weight, and he has social anxiety. Dr Ribero himself is absolutely a caricature, but only in public; when he tells Kester he has been diagnosed with a disability, he becomes more human than caricature. Mike and Selina I absolutely want to see dating. The whole team fits together so well, each with their strengths and weaknesses, each of them with flaws.
Larry Higgins and his crew are just as wonderful and flawed. Higgins himself is someone I never want to meet, and yet certain aspects of his personality I can see in people I know. He is negative, so sure of himself that he refuses to see any viewpoint but his own.
There is a transgender character. To avoid spoilers, I won't say their name and I'll use gender neutral pronouns. It is handled with grace and dignity. When the rest of the characters find out, a little over half way into the book, the narration changes their name and pronouns, as do all the other characters. They are respected, not questioned, and accepted. This could be the first book I have ever read with a transgender character, that has not been about the character being transgender.
I thoroughly recommend this book, and this series as a whole. Only two books in, and this has become one of my favourite series. This is a series with diversity, with characters that have a public/private face.
I cannot wait for the third book to come out early next year.
E