author : Simon R. Green

In which we are introduced to Captains Hawk and Fisher, husband and wife team, and about the only honest Guards in the hell hole town of Haven. They are assigned to bodyguard a politician, Councillor Blackstone, but very soon he is dead. So instead they end up investigating his murder -- which allows Green to write a fairly classic "locked-room murder mystery" -- but there's nothing classic about the setting, with magicians, werewolves, vampires, and legendary heroes being stirred into the plot.

The prose is fairly pedestrian, but the plot rattles along at a good pace, with all the action set in one night. It's not a particularly convoluted problem -- I managed to spot most of the clues (except, to my embarrassment, the big one of how the door was locked from the inside), but it makes for a fun detective story set in an exotic locale -- with the odd sword fight thrown in for good measure.

It's election day in Haven, and Captains Hawk and Fisher are again assigned to bodyguard James Adamant, candidate for the Reform Party. Given their recent experience, they are determined to keep this subject alive. But Councillor Hardcastle has other ideas, and he's willing to use any trick in the book, up to and including illegal magic, to remove his opponent before the polls open.

An inside look at corrupt Haven politics, a guided tour of some of the weirder parts of the city, including the Street of Gods, and several sword fights, make for an amusing afternoon's reading.

Someone is killing the Beings on the Street of Gods, and Hawk and Fisher are seconded to the Deity Division (better known as the "God Squad") to find the murderer before a riot of divine proportions ensues. Again, the action takes place over a single day, although, on the Street of Gods, time can run at its own rate.

More views of Haven, some extremely bizarre supernatural Beings, and their even more bizarre worshippers, and more sword fights, keep up the standard of these tales.

Hawk and Fisher track down a badly-wanted spy, but he gives them the slip, and hides out in the MacNeil family Tower. As "reward", they are sent into the Tower undercover, masquerading as Quality, where they discover that not only do they have to track down a spy, but also settle a deadly family curse. Added to which, if they are exposed, the penalty for pretending to be Quality is death by dismemberment, and their chief has promised to disavow any knowledge of their actions. And Fisher's in a skirt -- without a sword!

Yet another "locked Tower" mystery, a device used to gather all the suspects in one place, kill them off one by one, while Hawk and Fisher race against time to uncover the villain(s). The background to Haven is being deepened, and what looks like the foreshadowings of important events put into place.

Peace talks are underway in Haven, but powerful forces are out to sabotage them. Hawk and Fisher find themselves at the centre of a plot to distribute a terrible new super-drug that will tear the town apart. Their attempts to uncover the perpetrators are rather hampered by them being the prime suspects.

The foreshadowings of important events in the previous book take a step further forward here. And Hawk and Fisher's position in the Guard is looking more and more untenable. Another readable plot -- with more fighting and less mystery than usual.

The Peace Treaty is about to be signed in Haven, but very powerful forces are out to sabotage it. Hawk and Fisher again find themselves at the centre of the action, as terrorists plot to assassinate the two Kings before they sign the treaty. But before the day is over, something much more terrible than a simple assassination will be started.

Yet another readable plot -- with much more fighting, of some quite grotesque creatures, and much less mystery than before. Also the deepest exploration of Hawk and Fisher's relationship yet -- it must come to nearly a page, all told.

My Hawk & Fisher titles were perfectly acceptable to my British publisher, but not to the US. No Haven for the Guilty became Hawk & Fisher. Because: it was the first of a series starring Hawk and Fisher. The second H&F book, Devil Take the Hindmost, became Winner Takes All. Because: the publisher believed most Americans wouldn't know what hindmost meant. Book 4, a gothic romance pastiche, was Vengeance for a Lonely Man in the UK, and Wolf in the Fold in the US. Because: the title was too long for the spine. And Book 6, Two Kings in Haven in the UK, became Bones of Haven in the US. Because ... I haven't a clue. Anti-monarchist feelings? -- Ansible 169, August 2001