Mulengro, Charles de Lint

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This is a bit of an unusual choice for me, I admit, but it was recommended by a friend, and I loved it. It is a pretty pulpy read, filled with some rather violent images (people torn to pieces, corpses strewn about, and the like). If you are a horror movie fan, this one would probably entertain you rather more than if you generally read Jane Austen.

The story focuses on the Romany (aka Gypsy) community in Canada and the US. Someone (or something) has been killing off Rom without leaving any clues behind for the Gaje (as in non-Rom) cops (pretty standard cops, right from central casting: the older, world-weary Caucasian and his young, more impulsive African-American partner, but they get the job done).

I don't want to ruin the various plot surprises, but I will say that the book treads in increasingly supernatural waters. Characters deal with their own skepticism, and this helps the reader (or at least, this reader) along with his. And the presentation of Rom beliefs and traditions is fascinating.

Having checked with a Rom friend of mine, the beliefs, passages and phrases in Romany are genuine and largely on target. From the terms used, the language looks fascinating. Made me want to study it. In my abundant spare time. There is a handy glossary at the back, and the vocabulary available to a degree set the terms for the plot. The religion or folklore or belief system is highly syncretic, with a God or gods, with magic and witches and ghosts, all of which make for what amounts not to a flat backdrop or convenient plot device but more of a full character in the novel.

You won't confuse this book with Don DeLillo or Philip Roth, but if this is your sort of read, you'll be highly entertained.