The Bride Wore Black Leather (Nightside Series #12)

by Simon R. Green

Overview

In the secret heart of London, under the cover of endless darkness, is the Nightside. But enter at your own risk. The party animals who live here may be as inhuman as their appetites...

My name is John Taylor. The Nightside is my home, and I’ve got a brand new full-time job there (in addition to my private eye work) as Walker—the Voice of the Authorities. I’m also marrying the love of my life, Suzie Shooter, the Nightside’s most fearsome bounty-hunter. But nothing comes easy here. Not life. Not death. And for certain, not happily-ever-after.

Before I can say “I do,” I have one more case to solve as a private eye—and my first assignment as Walker. Both jobs would be a lot easier to accomplish if I weren’t on the run, from friends and enemies alike. And if my bride-to-be weren’t out to collect the bounty on my head...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425256442
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/24/2012
Series:	A Nightside Book , #12
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	342,388
Product dimensions:	4.38(w) x 6.60(h) x 0.86(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Simon R. Green is a New York Times bestselling author whose works include the Secret Histories Novels, the Novels of the Nightside, the Ghost Finders series,  Drinking Midnight Wine, Beyond the Blue Moon, Blue Moon Rising, The Adventures of Hawk & Fisher, and the Deathstalker series. He lives in England.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Green’s superlative twelfth Nightside novel ratchets up the stakes for series protagonist John Taylor in an intricate and action-filled plot that seamlessly blends crime and the supernatural…The pace never flags and the sardonic Chandleresque narration is perfectly suited to the Nightside’s fantastical mean streets.”—Publishers Weekly

“There is still the classic Green breakneck pacing, the quirky character twists, the joys of name-drop references (to his other books and pop-culture icons alike), but they’re accompanied by a wonderful narrative sense of melancholy, as if Green hates parting with John as much as we do.”—Tulsa Book Review (online edition)

“Simon R. Green walks us through his most thoroughly developed setting and its vast assortment of strange, devious, and downright weird characters…The Nightside may be shuttered for now, but Green never forsakes his darlings for long; readers may expect to see John Taylor, Shotgun Suzie or other denizens of the Nightside infiltrate his other works in the future. At the very least, they’ve been given a proper sendoff. Recommended.”—SF Revu (online edition)

“The Bride Wore Black Leather has everything I expect from a Nightside book. Taylor is the Sam Spade for the twenty-first century, willing to stare down an angel, a demon or a god. Nightside has the meanest of the mean streets, and John Taylor is right at home there. Sunnyside? Not bloody likely.”—Fantasy Literature (online edition)

Editorial Reviews

Green’s superlative twelfth Nightside novel ratchets up the stakes for series protagonist John Taylor in an intricate and action-filled plot that seamlessly blends crime and the supernatural…The pace never flags and the sardonic Chandleresque narration is perfectly suited to the Nightside’s fantastical mean streets.”—Publishers Weekly

“There is still the classic Green breakneck pacing, the quirky character twists, the joys of name-drop references (to his other books and pop-culture icons alike), but they’re accompanied by a wonderful narrative sense of melancholy, as if Green hates parting with John as much as we do.”—Tulsa Book Review (online edition)

“Simon R. Green walks us through his most thoroughly developed setting and its vast assortment of strange, devious, and downright weird characters…The Nightside may be shuttered for now, but Green never forsakes his darlings for long; readers may expect to see John Taylor, Shotgun Suzie or other denizens of the Nightside infiltrate his other works in the future. At the very least, they’ve been given a proper sendoff. Recommended.”—SF Revu (online edition)

“The Bride Wore Black Leather has everything I expect from a Nightside book. Taylor is the Sam Spade for the twenty-first century, willing to stare down an angel, a demon or a god. Nightside has the meanest of the mean streets, and John Taylor is right at home there. Sunnyside? Not bloody likely.”—Fantasy Literature (online edition)

From the Publisher

Green’s superlative 12th Nightside novel (after 2011’s A Hard Day’s Knight), set in a world “hidden deep in the dark and dangerous heart of London,” ratchets up the stakes for series protagonist John Taylor in an intricate and action-filled plot that seamlessly blends crime and the supernatural. Taylor has been designated the new “Walker,” the public face of the rulers of the Nightside, so he begins wrapping up his personal investigation business. Then an anonymous e-mail sends Taylor to the Ball of Forever; the guest list is limited to immortals, but a killer manages to strike one down. As Taylor hunts the culprit, he learns that a powerful entity seeks to destroy the entire Nightside. The pace never flags and the sardonic Chandleresque narration (”She didn’t lose her innocence; she threw it away with both hands, first chance she got”) is perfectly suited to the Nightside’s fantastical mean streets. Agent: JABberwocky Literary Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Another in Green's urban-fantasy noir Nightside series (A Hard Day's Knight, 2011, etc.)—purportedly the last. Nightside is the uncanny underside of London, inhabited by a bewildering variety of supernatural beings, where it's perpetually 3 AM and you can get anything you want, and also things you decidedly don't want. Our narrator, multitalented PI John Taylor, now appointed Walker (think marshal of Dodge City) by the Authorities, decides to take one last case before marrying his sweetheart, bounty hunter Suzie Shooter. He receives a supernatural warning of shenanigans to come at the Ball of Forever, where Nightside's immortals gather to sneer and preen at one another. Green introduces us to the attendees in what isn't too much more than an admittedly inventive parade of otherworldly weirdos. Eventually, somebody murders the widely despised King of Skin ("You're Only Immortal As Long As You Don't Die") and also Frankenstein's Bride. The Bride is soon back on her feet after a jolt of electricity, but King of Skin is indeed permanently dead. The new Walker soon wraps up the mystery, but then a godlike entity called the Sun King, a charismatic hippie who disappeared back in the 1960s, shows up to declare that he'll bring devastating, cleansing sunlight to the Nightside, whose denizens are aghast. Worse, the Sun King appears to have been amplified by superpowered entities from another dimension. What follows is another dramatic, inventive and highly selective orgy of murder and mayhem. Can Walker prevail against odds when almost everybody wants him dead? And will he get to the church on time? Despite a few blips, a hugely satisfying windup for one of fantasy's most memorable constructs.

Kirkus Reviews