Kirsten Reviews: Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older

Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older

Bone Street Rumba #2

The streets of New York are hungry tonight...

Carlos Delacruz straddles the line between the living and the not-so alive. As an agent for the Council of the Dead, he eliminates New York’s ghostlier problems. This time it’s a string of gruesome paranormal accidents in Brooklyn’s Von King Park that has already taken the lives of several locals—and is bound to take more.

The incidents in the park have put Kia on edge. When she first met Carlos, he was the weird guy who came to Baba Eddie's botánica, where she worked. But the closer they’ve gotten, the more she’s seeing the world from Carlos’s point of view. In fact, she’s starting to see ghosts. And the situation is far more sinister than that—because whatever is bringing out the dead, it’s only just getting started.

Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older continues his Bone Street Rumba series. The first hurdle for any sequel is to measure up to its predecessor and raise the stakes. In this case, the book picks up the story of Carlos Delacruz, a man who is neither fully alive nor completely dead. The exact circumstances of his death aren’t clear, and part of what occupies his existence “in between” is trying to figure out what happened to him. The rest of the time he works as part of the clean up crew or enforcement division of the New York Council of the Dead and hunts down and executes those ghosts or other supernatural beings who break the rules.

Of late there has been a number of murders around Brooklyn’s Von King Park which have the marks of a paranormal culprit, and Carlos is tasked with finding the perpetrator and dealing with them. At one point he and his team are able to interrupt an attack and the intended victim is someone Carlos knows fairly well, Kia, a teenage girl who works for one of Carlos’ friends. Although Kia is justifiably freaked out about the fact that now she’s been touched by a ghost she can see all the spirits and other creatures that most living people have no idea about, she’s far from the kind of girl who will sit out a fight, despite Carlos thinking doing so will protect her from the monsters.

As heroic protagonists go, Carlos is in a sorry state following the events of the last book, and is often the character about to run heedlessly into danger, if not for the intervention of other characters. While his state of mind made sense, at times it felt as if he should simply not be allowed anywhere without a buddy.

The story has several points of view, that of Carlos, as well as Kia and another character named Reza. This does provide other perspectives, but at times it felt as if Kia or Reza should have their own story, as there wasn’t enough room for Kia’s story or Reza’s past, and the route she to finding out that the dead don’t rest easy at all. There were a couple other side characters who deserve their own novels, and given some of the connections, but romantic and otherwise, this is very likely in the rest of the series.

The story moves along without stumbling as it bounces from one character to another, but there felt like there were some parts of the story weren’t tied together as strongly as they could be, and there was more explaining than should have been necessary. But, as a whole, the characters had clear goals and were all prepared to do whatever was necessary to get revenge, avenge lost loved ones, or protect their families. If readers have any issues with cursing, roaches or violence this may be too much for them, but Older’s stories are not prettied up, and the characters are up against stakes that compel them to make difficult choices and keep putting one foot in front of the other to keep going.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

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     1. Half-Resurrection Blues

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Kirsten Reviews: Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel Jose Older

Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel Jose Older

Bone Street Rumba #1

“Because I’m an inbetweener—and the only one anyone knows of at that—the dead turn to me when something is askew between them and the living. Usually, it’s something mundane like a suicide gone wrong or someone revived that shouldn’ta been.”

Carlos Delacruz is one of the New York Council of the Dead’s most unusual agents—an inbetweener, partially resurrected from a death he barely recalls suffering, after a life that’s missing from his memory. He thinks he is one of a kind—until he encounters other entities walking the fine line between life and death.

One inbetweener is a sorcerer. He’s summoned a horde of implike ngks capable of eliminating spirits, and they’re spreading through the city like a plague. They’ve already taken out some of NYCOD’s finest, leaving Carlos desperate to stop their master before he opens up the entrada to the Underworld—which would destroy the balance between the living and the dead.

But in uncovering this man’s identity, Carlos confronts the truth of his own life—and death…

Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older is the first book in the Bone Street Rumba series, and gives readers the first full length novel featuring the character of Carlos Delacruz, previously introduced in a story collection from the author.

For those who haven’t heard of Carlos before, he’s what is known as an ‘inbetweener.’ This means he’s both alive and dead, quite possibly the only one of his kind, has virtually no memory of who he was before he crossed over to the other side, however briefly, and consequently has a few issues.

In the course of working for the the New York Council of the Dead, Carlos is usually called in when the dead need help dealing with issues like unwarranted revivals, or a suicide gone wrong. This time, he’s tasked with taking out a man by the name of Trevor, who is somehow threatening the stability of an ‘entrada,’ aka an entrance into the underworld. What Carlos doesn’t know is that this assignment will result in him finding out more about his past, and also crossing the path of Sarco, a sorcerer who is looking to obliterate the barrier separating the living and the dead. To do so, he’s summoned a horde of implike ngks who have the ability to eradicate spirits, and as is their nature, these imps are spreading quickly throughout the city.

Carlos has to figure out both Sarco’s identity, and figure out a way to stop him, but he will also have to confront his life, and death, which is something of a tall order.

The author has a lyrical writing style that lends itself well to this version of New York City, often taking the twisted path in his storytelling, which makes for a highly readable first installment in a promising series.
(Received a copy from the publisher)

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