The Third Lucius Fogg Novel - Educated Corpses

The third, and what appears to be final, book in the Lucius Fogg series takes its protagonist, Jimmy Doyle, on some unexpected twists and turns and provides a cinematic-worthy climax to the book (and the series) that, while it leaves it open for more stories in the future, still provides a satisfying conclusion to Doyle's story.

And I still find it interesting that the series is "A Lucius Fogg Novel," yet all three books have focused on former vet turned private investigator, Jimmy Doyle.  But, author Dan Wickline has his reasons, so who am I to question it?

The series has already dealt with vampires and werewolves, as well as mad sorcerers and other creatures of supernatural myth - so it should come as no surprise that Educated Corpses brings Doyle face to face with zombies.  At the same time, Wickline forces Doyle to confront his past when a former mentor reaches out to him for help, but dies gruesomely at the hands of a re-animated gorilla before Doyle can find out why he called him.

But, as with any good supernatural story, you can't keep a good man down - or dead, for that matter.  As Doyle begins to look into the last case that his former mentor, Elias Chandler, was working on when he died (hoping it will give him a clue as to why Elias called him), he gets a surprise visit at Fogg's brownstone by none other than Elias Chandler!  It's definitely a case of dead-man-walking, but not at all in the usual way.  Wickline creates a unique story of lost dogs, greed, mad scientists, army involvement, a beautiful seductress, reanimated corpses, and - oh, yeah, just for good measure, a subplot involving a growing rebellion in the vampire community of Old Town.

And did I mention that Doyle finds himself using more and more spells in this book, to not only protect himself, but others as well?

Wickline pulls out all the stops for this final tale of Jimmy Doyle and friends.  Doyle's investigation into the reanimated corpses takes him to a university professor with a gorgeous assistant and a larger-than-life bodyguard who packs quite a punch.  But he's been knocked unconscious and thrown out of places before, so he doesn't let it deter him from his ultimate goal - finding out who is bringing the dead back to life and why.  And that fact that the new police chief has forbidden Doyle and Fogg to be involved with any police investigations under threat of revoking Doyle's P.I. licence and evicting Fogg from his brownstone, it seems Doyle will have to work his way around the police to solve this one.

But with the help of his friends - Patches, Seabass, Elias, Conrad, and Fogg's alchemist friend Claire - Doyle is sure to solve the case.  But at what cost?  As Elias reminds him, the use of magic has its costs, and Doyle has to ask himself, is he ready to pay the price?  Not everyone makes it out of this book alive (even the living dead can ultimately die), and the final showdown of zombies versus a united front of vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, and humans is the perfect pulse-pounding conclusion to a fantastic trilogy.

Educated Corpses was published in 2016, and in the author's bio at the end of the book, there's a short tagline that says Lucius and Jimmy will be back - but there is no indication of when, and I find nothing anywhere online to indicate a fourth book is forthcoming.  Which, if one never materializes, is okay, as the conclusion of this story wraps up a lot of subplots and leaves all of the characters who survive in a really good place.

Thanks, Dan Wickline for some really great reads and for adding Lucius Fogg and Jimmy Doyle to the supernatural/mystery/sci-fi world of reading!

RATING:  9 reflecting quarters out of 10 for mashing the supernatural and noir detective novels in a fresh way!