Every inch of Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig screams pessimism. It lingers around the story, the characters, and even the back water towns in which it is set, like a cloud of noxious cigarette smoke blown from our heroin Miriam's sin-ridden lips. And yet, despite all the darkness, despite the death and the bleak world view, there is a sliver of light that manages to squeeze through.

I don't believe there has ever been a better time to be a Sherlock Holmes fan. With a superb BBC modern day adaptation, a great fun (if ridiculous) Hollywood blockbuster, and to top it all off a brand spanking new Holmes novel, The House of Silk, written by one of the worlds most prolific fictional murderers, it is a brand that is getting a large amount of positive attention today.

At the heart of Hard Spell is a fairly obvious premise, and one that has been done almost to death over the last few years. Magic and monsters are real and someone has to protect those who can't protect themselves. Still, there must be some life left in the genre yet, as Justin Gustainis proves with his dark and broody novel that pitches a run of the mill human cop against the forces of darkness.

Note: Check out the trailer for Hard Spell at the bottom of the review...

The publication of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is, in itself, a tragedy – Stieg Larsson died suddenly shortly after delivering the manuscript for the book, and its two sequels, to his publisher, leaving behind the unfinished plot outlines for a further 3 books featuring the main characters, a fact that has helped his sales along the way. Because the Millennium Trilogy are all that will be published by Stieg Larsson, so there is no risk of the series being marred by further, weaker books, something that has afflicted a great deal of authors.