What Feast at Night by T.Kingfisher

 "I edged Hobb away from the side of the road, where a tangle of vines draped over a bare tree like spilled entrails." What Feast at Night by T.Kingfisher

We're back for another story of Alex Easton, who is headed to her family lodge and is in for a surprise. Upon arrival she and Angus find the caretaker Codrin has died in their absence and the town talks of a demon of nightmares that stalks the grounds.

T.Kingfisher was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. Now some people like Austin or Dickens, but I hold Poe to be one of the best classic writers of time. It all comes down to atmosphere. A good Gothic Horror should have a setting as ghostly as its monster and as much a character as its hero, and Kingfisher delivers.

In the opening pages, it's implied that Alex is a she, which surprised me. (I'd been calling her he, up until she announced that her father had no sons.) She is an interesting character, war heroine, naive skeptic, and altogether force to be reckoned with when pressed. Her chaperone/sidekick Angus is always steadfast in his support and Miss Potter, a quirky companion, returns to analyze her mushrooms in a new location.

Kingfisher writes a second fast-paced, gripping mystery as good as the first. You can read it one sitting if you've got the time or savor it slowly if you don't.