Gini Koch – The night beat

The first book in the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, published June 14, 2012.
Genre: urban fantasy / paranormal romance.



The majority of Prosaic City's residents don't know that their town exists on top of another place -- Necropolis, City of the Undead. For the most part, the two planes of existence manage to remain separate. And when they don't, Necropolis Enforcement has beings in place to ensure the general human population remains blithely clueless. Victoria Wolfe is more than just a policewoman. She's an undercover werewolf assigned by Necropolis Enforcement to work Prosaic City Police's Night Beat. Victoria's comfortable working the shift where all the weird comes out to play, especially since her partner is also her perfect man. Or would be, if Victoria could ever work up the nerve to tell him she isn't like other girls.
It's hard enough being a werewolf in disguise, but when a creature from the Depths of Hell shows up in an alley preferred by junkies, bums, and hookers, it's going to take more than just Victoria's special gun and werewolf skills to subdue the ancient Sumerian demon. Especially when the demon is merely the start of what appears to be a major takeover attempt by the Prince of Darkness. Soon all of Necropolis Enforcement's Undead Brigade is involved in the fight to stop the Prince's Major Minions from taking over Prosaic City and the rest of the human plane. But it's Victoria who has to face the Adversary and figure out what intricate plan Lucifer has up his wings before everyone she cares about is destroyed. In other words, it's just another day on the Night Beat.


Victoria Wolfe is working as a cop for Prosaic City. She is also a werewolf, one of the many types of undead that populate Necropolis City, and works for Necropolis Enforcement. Necroplis is a city beneath Prosaic City, in a kind of alternate reality. Necropolis was there first, and the humans have build Prosaic City on top of it, and if you can see both realities, that is a really weird thing.
She and her human partner are called to a situation in an alley in one of the lesser parts of the city. Where something horrible awaits them. Something has eaten four cops, two cop cars, and a bunch of bums and hookers that usually inhabit that alley. And now it wants to eat them as well. Vic quickly asks for backup from Necropolis Enforcement, hoping to keep her human partner safe. It takes a lot of backup before they can contain the slimy monster/old Sumerian god thing, and her human partner, Jack, witnesses the whole thing. Somehow, the vampire who was influencing him, lost his concentration, and Jack broke free of his mindcontrol. Strangely enough, he is not fazed in the least with the confrontation with all those sort of beings and monsters. He even safes Vic when she thrown into a container. Jack admits that he knew that Vic was a werewolf for a long time now, and that he really really likes her. He does not think her a monster. Vic finds it hard to believe, but she is happy as she has had a crush on Jack since day one.
With the demolishing of the demon/god, all his victims fall free. Some are dead, some still alive, and some of the dead ones get a chance to become undead, and start over. One of the bums becomes a zombie, and one of the hookers a succubus. They get to choose what they want to become.

Afterwards, the team takes Jack and the new undead with them to Necropolis Enforcement headquarters, to debrief. The team is made up of Vic, werewolf, Maurice, Ken and Amanda, vampires, Monty a mummy and Rover his white worm. (Ken is also an ex-boyfriend of Vic). Monty is the head of Dirt Corps, all kinds of underground undead creatures, and it are their efforts that kill the slime monster/god.

Jack really takes everything in calmly, but with a lot of questions. Exhausted after a long night, Jack accompanies Vic to her apartment for the first time, and even though it was just for resting, they made love for the first time. The next morning, Jack has made a breakfast worthy of a hungry werewolf. After that, it is back to the crime scene, and figuring out what has happened. A major minion of the Prince (= evil) cannot just appear out of nowhere, he must have been summoned.


It is impossible for me to recap this book, beyond the first two or three chapters. So much happens in this fast paced book, so many beings appear on stage, and you really need to discover all this awesomeness for yourself. Basically, it is the fight of good against evil, the choice of fighting for your favourite god (or monster), or for the Prince (evil). And do not worry, not too much theology in here, you are not being converted into religion.
I really liked Vic, she is a fun character, with the most evil and bad parents you can imagine, but I bet you couldn’t. She has been an undead werewolf for over 2 centuries now, she still has some feelings for her ex boyfriend Jude, who is an angel. She broke up with Ken because he was just too perfect to live with. What I like most though, she is a werewolf. She has three forms, human, wolf and werewolf, which is not unusual. But in her human form, she still has wolf traits! Like the fact that she wants to hump Jack’s leg, that instead of tailwaving, her backside sways. Her senses stay sharp in human form as well.
And Jack, well, he is the perfect man for her (or maybe not … ) he is a very good cop, and a very hot manly man.
You will find all kinds of famous historical people in this book, al all kinds of undead, even beings I have never heard about before. And I loved it. Loved it.

This story is chockfull of awesome characters, the most kinds of paranormal beings I have ever found in one book, lots of action and fightscenes, a great story, lots of nice often sarcastic humor and wit, some lovescenes, and everything I need in a good book. I have no complaints at all. Vic does remind me a little of Kat from her Alien series, in that she can see the very outlandish plot and what to do to stop it. I really had no idea what would happen next, the story and the characters kept surprising me.

Gini told me on Twitter, that she is planning a nice long series for Vic and her pack, which makes me very happy :-).

This book is not for sale at the Bookdepository, but it is on Amazon in paper and ebook. So go forth, and buy it! You won’t regret it!

10 stars

© 2012 Reviews by Aurian