Till Sudden Death Do Us Part

In Green’s thin seventh paranormal mystery featuring the disguised alien life-form who calls himself Ishmael Jones (after 2018’s Murder in the Dark), Jones, the sole survivor of a “starship from God knows where” that crashed in England a half-century earlier, and his love interest, Penny Belcourt, who like him is a member of the Organization, a secret group devoted to “solving cases of the weird and uncanny,” head to Yorkshire. There, Robert Bergin, an old friend of Jones from their days working for a different secret group, needs their help. The impending marriage of Bergin’s daughter is a cause for concern, because of a legendary family curse that maintains an invisible demon will kill any Bergin bridegroom on his wedding night. Bergin has more than superstition to alarm him; someone has murdered the vicar who was slated to perform the ceremony. The author does a nice job of creating a spooky atmosphere, but the payoff is weak and Jones’s wrestling with himself to keep his inner alien in check isn’t well developed. Green fails to make the most of his unusual concept in this outing. (Aug.)