When the world feels too dark and the circumstances too bleak, you need someone extraordinary to take care of it. Meet the Nightfall Detective Agency and its members: the vampire, Tori; the werewolf, Mueller; the witch, Ida; and the golem, Frank. Together, they form an indomitable force. The scenes unfold right in the middle of World War II, at the pivotal point when the Japanese forces bomb Pearl Harbor. In retaliation, many Japanese people are sent to camps. In one such camp, there have been some unnatural deaths that no one can fathom. Some witnesses claim otherworldly attacks. Who are better positioned to investigate the supernatural crimes than the supernatural detectives? Find out about their exploits in Rage of the Skinwalker, the first book in the Case Files from the Nightfall Detective Agency series by David Alyn Gordon.

Although the book is primarily a supernatural thriller, Gordon seamlessly blends elements from real history and mythologies to create a nuanced storyline. The novel accurately reflects the plight of oppressed people, regardless of their ethnicity. I admired how Gordon refers to the indescribable cruelty the Navajos faced, being subjected to forced relocation and internment. Now, history seems to repeat itself, as the Japanese imprisoned in the same camps undergo excruciating torture, and possibly something much worse. As the Nightfall Agency employs their unique powers to explore the eerie fatalities, they unravel a sinister plot beyond anything a sane person can comprehend. The darkness lurking within our psyche rears its ugly head. The haunting secrets that underscore the limitless greed of the power-hungry and the mad rage of the aggrieved victims send chills down our spines. I recommend Rage of the Skinwalker by David Alyn Gordon to readers who enjoy supernatural thrillers and historical fiction.

In David Alyn Gordon’s Rage of the Skinwalker, vampire Tori Jacobsen and werewolf Abraham Mueller return to the Nightfall Detective Agency as America enters World War II. Their government assignments pull the Tucson investigators into secret wartime operations as Arizona changes after Pearl Harbor. In Phoenix, teenager Michiko Aragaki watches suspicion fall on Japanese American families who considered the city home, placing her future with longtime friend Saburō Hikawa under new uncertainty. Farther north, Malia Begay mourns a devastating loss as her Navajo relatives protect supernatural abilities passed quietly through their family. Her cousin Chayton Nez serves through intelligence assignments that begin moving him toward the wartime machinery affecting Michiko’s family. As federal power expands across Arizona, lives that once seemed separate begin drawing together around secrets that place wartime politics beside supernatural danger.

David Alyn Gordon’s Rage of the Skinwalker is a well-executed mystery, and Tori is a protagonist we want to root for, especially when her principles bring her into conflict with wartime prejudice. Gordon fleshes her out as someone driven by a sense of justice, confronting the University of Arizona president over Japanese American students being barred from classes. The Arizona setting is fantastic, from the improvised baseball field at Gila River, where mattress cloth becomes uniforms, to the relocation camp surrounded by fences and guard towers. I love how Gordon builds the supernatural into the detective work, giving the agency’s unusual abilities a role in the mystery. Ida’s spell against the man following her from Tucson City Hall fits naturally into that world. Well written and atmospheric, readers who enjoy supernatural mysteries will adore this brilliant book in the Case Files from the Nightfall Detective Agency series.