Strange things are happening in the pauper’s graveyard at Charnel’s End. There are hideous creatures in the undergrowth, a mysterious light emanating from the church, and something deadly beneath the ground itself. Someone from Litefoot’s past has come back to haunt him, and things may never be the same again…
JAGO & LITEFOOT: THE NECROPOLIS EXPRESS
Series Two of Jago & Litefoot started with a vampire story and now it progresses into a zombie tale, Mark Morris’ “The Necropolis Express.” The start of the story is creepy enough, with the infernal investigators traveling on a secret train that transports coffins to the graveyard – the Express of the title. Jago refers to this offhandedly as the “midnight meat train” – was that an actual term or is Morris channeling Clive Barker? Litefoot needs to know if Ellie will rise from the dead as a vampire, and so they’re following her body to its final resting place. When they arrive, they find Reuben Mord (a very creepy Vernon Dobtcheff), a mysterious black-clad figure performing experiments in an attempt to resurrect the dead. It turns out this is an old nemesis of Litefoot in disguise, something I find rarely works dramatically when we as listeners have never encountered the character before. But his experiments are suitably horrifying, and there’s a solid tie to the work of Gabriel Sanders to keep the series arc going. And of course Ellie *does* come back as a vampire, which is going to make things very interesting when she starts eating rude customers. (I know, I know.) Not as much character work on display here, but as a creepy horror story it works very well.
7/10