What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

"It was downright uncanny, in a way that had nothing to do with ghosts and monsters. You could feel the weight of the stone pressing down overhead..."

Before I summarize the story, let me express my surprise that Alex Easton is non-binary. In the first book I was convinced Alex was a he and in the second book I saw evidence that Alex was a she.  In this last book, I realized Alex is neither which is why gender is never emphasized. Three books into the Sworn Soldier series(trilogy?) and it’s clear to see that I’m kind of slow on the uptake.

Alex Easton is back in a new adventure. Kan (the pronouns Alex uses are ‘ka/kan’ originating from Galician) old friend Dr. James Denton has written to tell kan about an abandoned mine where his cousin Oscar has gone missing. Denton insists that Oscar was taken by something ‘other’ and that there’s the possibility he is still alive. Alex agrees to look into Oscar’s disappearance.

While the original inspiration for this series was Edgar Allan Poe, I feel like the storyline lost some of its Poe-ishness. Which is to say it didn’t quite meet my standards for a Gothic fiction. To me, an overwhelming theme in Gothic fiction, especially Gothic horror, are themes of, and comparisons to, death and decay. It sets the atmosphere which should be quite dark. The darkness in this book is really literal; the setting is a mine and there is no light in mines. Gone are the sad and morbid metaphors and descriptions located in the first two books.

I won’t mark it down for that. There’s no rule that all horror should be Gothic. I’m just want you to know it deviated from the tone of the first two books.

The plot itself revolves around the missing Oscar to create a frightening mystery. Could he have been murdered by the local man hired to show him around? Or eaten by the bear terrorizing the nearby town? Or, as Denton believes, could something unbelievably more sinister have occurred? T. Kingfisher explores those questions before addressing the exciting answer.

The setting of a mine was the perfect place for a horror story to begin and end. A labyrinth of tunnels deep underground some filled with toxic gas, others prone to collapse. And of course, the suffocating darkness.

I don't know how consistent the characters were... Angus was Angus, but Alex had a sense of humor in this book and I can't remember whether or not ka had one in the first two books so that was something that may have or may not have changed.

This book may not have been the scariest of the three, but it certainly was the strangest. I was thoroughly entertained and I read it in one sitting.