I read and reviewed A Long Shadow, the first in H. L. Marsay’s Inspector Shadow mystery series. I felt that Shadow was slightly derivative of Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse, but the writing wasn’t bad, and I like York as a setting. And I could hardly resist a second volume entitled A Viking’s Shadow.

York’s annual Viking festival actually exists, though I suspect its organization is rather different from what we see in this story. Inspector John Shadow, a solitary and somewhat misanthropic man, relishes eating in the city’s restaurants (Italian and Chinese preferred). So he hates the festival, which crowds the streets with tourists and makes his favorite tables hard to get. But it’s even more inconvenient when, on the first night of this year’s celebration, the “king” of the festival, a businessman named Alfred Campbell who styles himself “Ragnar,” is found murdered in his Viking tent, a replica sword in his chest. Then, on the same night, a beautiful fortune teller who was involved with Campbell is found strangled.

Shadow, assisted by his annoyingly enthusiastic sergeant, Jimmy Chan, is on the case. Lots of people hated Arthur Campbell, for both business and personal reasons. Shadow approaches the case in his old school manner, but has to admit that Jimmy, with his modern technology, has something to offer. And in the end the true culprit – a fairly unexpected one – is brought to light.

I thought the plot of A Viking’s Shadow was well worked out, and I like the characters. Most of the time, when authors try to work Viking themes into mysteries, they make major mistakes, but author Marsay has clearly done her research, and I have no serious complaints. An interesting aspect of the stories is that Shadow (like Morse) is a crossword puzzle fiend. But Marsay does Colin Dexter one better by beginning each chapter with a puzzle clue, which applies to an actual puzzle at the back of the book. I’m not very good at serious crosswords, but I did get one (just one) clue in this book – only because I know Viking stuff.

Pretty good book. I don’t recall any objectionable content.