The Empire's capital of Altdorf lies huddled beneath a shroud of fear as a killer of women stalks its fog-bound streets. The savage murderer, known only as The Beast, leaves his victims behind in grotesque displays of gore and mutilation, and there seems to be nothing the City Watch can do to stop him.
Johann Von Mecklenberg, 3 years after the events at Castle Drachenfels, has returned to Altdorf to tutor the future heir to the Empire, and to check up on his brother Wolf. The same brother who once was kidnapped, corrupted and made a servant and warrior of Chaos for more than a decade, and whose life of corruption was miraculously annulled by a heroic self-sacrifice, and who was returned to the boy he once was, young and innocent, and unmarked by Chaos.
But the taint of Chaos can not be so easily washed away, and as the Beast Murders continue to terrorize the nation's capital, Johann begins to regard his brother with a terrible suspicion.
Harald Kleindeinst, hard bastard and disgraced ex-copper, watches the mounting tension in the streets and can do nothing, removed as is from the workings of the Law. But as Johann comes to him with an offer of reinstatement in order to find and capture The Beast, 'Filthy' Harald is more than happy to reintroduce himself to the criminal element of the city, with a fist of iron and knife of steel, of course.
They are joined by Rosanna Ophuls, psychic scryer and novice in the cult of Sigmar. Her scrying gift has made her ideally suited to uncover information on the killer, but she'll have to let herself feel the horrific last moments of his victims to gain clues on his identity. And though she is no stranger to the darkest thoughts of Altdorf's citizens, the Beast's twisted mind might just be too much for her to handle.
As the fog worsens, and rumours surrounding the nature of the Beast spread among the citizens, the tension on the street rises. With the citizenry angered at the complacency of the aristocracy, and with gang violence escalating every moment, the threat of riot and calamity looms ever larger.
Johann, Rosanna and Harald will have to work together to apprehend the killer and to stop Altdorf from plunging into chaos.
Excessive blurb, anyone?
You'd think that all the bases would be covered after that, but there's some stuff I've not mentioned both to keep the word count down and to prevent spoilers, and also because I like to go along with whatever the writer puts out there. And Yes, that's right, there are no spoilers here, believe it or not. All of the above is present in, give or take, the first 60 pages.
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Beasts in Velvet has long been my favourite stand-alone novel in the Warhammer universe. It is the one responsible for a lot of the background feeling of the fiction, or at least the fiction set in the cities of the Empire. Lankhmar was a huge inspiration for the cities of the Empire, but not even Leiber imbued his setting with the same liveliness that Newman does here.
One of the main reasons why the Vampire Genevieve series is so beloved is that it made the world feel alive.
In the fiction that was to follow, the capital of the Empire was such an interesting setting because Newman made it so. He made Altdorf a lived-in city, beholden to its citizens, and not just governed by the military men that came to rule the Warhammer world. And citizens have a citizen's need, and after the most basic functions, that need is predominantly the need to be entertained. Newman's stories constantly reference their in-universe's popular culture; there are references to the theatre productions of Tarradasch or Detlef Sierck, the ballads of Ferring, or the songs of the minstrel Orfeo.
And it helps enormously, of course, that Newman himself gave us such a splendid set of in-universe pieces of entertainment with The Strange case of Doctor Ziekhill and Mister Chaida (Stage Blood) and The Treachery of -REDACTED- (Drachenfels, and beyond), making the idea of popular culture within this setting infinitely more feasible.
This, more than anything, this acknowledgment and pre-occupation with art and entertainment, gives the reader a sense of recognition and identification with the people that populate these stories. Not just the main characters, but also the others without whom there would be no story. The population at large. The faceless masses that make up the population of this world. Usually this amorphous blob is there on the background, given lip-service to, rarely seen and barely heard, but because art needs an audience Newman had to bring them alive. And all of a sudden, the masses are no longer faceless.
And in Beasts in Velvet he explores them and their relationship with the world around them further by introducing the impact of news, gossip, and rumour.
Though it isn't perfect, Beasts in Velvet gave us more information on the normal citizens that live in the Empire, how they live, and how they would respond to a serial killer stalking their streets.
Anyone who'd read the Vampire Genevieve series had a way more active and interesting background world for their next adventures (or battles) to play themselves out in.
Anyway, I really got off track there, but sometimes you just have to go along with what you want to say, and explore the things that really interest you. I find that sometimes I just can't write, because instead of giving myself free reign, I'm trying to work in a manner that constrains me so much until I can't write at all.
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Seeing as the above wall of text won't help with the people coming here to see about the whole 'Horror' business, I better trim this next bit down a tad. Let's start with a few words from the man himself.
From the Introduction:
And then there is the opening quote:
And it does: Beasts in Velvet horrifies, even on re-read. It's an engaging tale of a twisted serial killer with dark psychological underpinnings (and the scene where this is revealed has some deeply upsetting stuff). It takes its cues from the Jack the Ripper murders, having mystery and sheer bloody horror at the center of its story, and it fills the streets with a thick, choking fog and enough body parts to comfortably trip over.
The characters are engaging, the story is fast-paced and its ending is satisfying.
Full merits. If you love horror and haven't picked this one up yet; go do so, you won't be disappointed. Can't recommend it enough.
* Small note, despite appearances it isn't necessary to read anything else in the Vampire Genevieve series: Beasts in Velvet stands alone, though there's always more flavour to be had if you've read Red Thirst (SS), Ignorant Armies (SS) and Drachenfels (N).
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