Synopsis
A noir story, set in an alternate New York City.
After years of being a cop, and now a private investigator, there’s little that surprises Cole Blackstone. But when someone working for Karl Dolman, the most notorious crime boss in the city asks for his help, Cole is caught off guard, and more than a little afraid.
Dolman’s daughter, Selina, has gone missing. To prevent a gang war that will tear the city apart, Cole must find her. But the job is being made more difficult as everyone is interfering, cops and criminals, and no one wants him to succeed.
Together with his childhood friend, Bracken Hart, the two men must navigate the depths of the city’s underworld for answers. In a race against the clock, Cole needs to find out what happened to Selina, and who is responsible, before the streets run red.
Review
“Yeah, right. So here we are. New York city. A place like no other: striving to be good, drowning in its own filth, going sour under the weight of so many bodies. There’s my optimism again.”
I had a great time with this novella. If you’re looking for a crime thriller in a gritty urban setting with a dark mystery, you will have a lot of fun with this. It takes the typical jaded private investigator of noir detective fiction and places him in a dystopian New York- a New York that has no technological advancements of the past and no electricity even. A New York where the highest building they construct is only six stories high because nobody wants to climb stairs.
The main characters Cole Blackstone and Bracken Hart were also a lot of fun to follow. Who wouldn’t like following a retired cop and his loyal, strong, and silent friend as they tried to unravel the mystery around the kidnapping of the city’s most feared crime boss. They both couldn’t catch a break and something kept happening to them. Because of the nature of the story and this brisk pacing, I was glued to the book. All the side characters we met were interesting and unique and I wanted to learn more about them.
“Cole and I are old friends,” replied the chief. “I wouldn’t say that,” I said. “I remember telling you to ‘fuck off and die’ the last time we were face to face.”
One specific highlight was the action scenes. The climax was truly high stakes and explosive in its own right but the smaller fight scenes before were so good to read. They were grounded, intense and brutal. The author got extraordinarily up close to the action. Also since the world has regressed after some sort of cataclysmic event, the weapons were more medieval. The New York mob gangsters were all fighting with crossbows, knives, shields, spears, and swords.
Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot and I’m glad to find that this is just the opening installment in the world. While it in itself is a self-contained story, the world and the culture that has been built here definitely needs more. To me, it appeared kind of like the world in Horizon Zero Dawn but without all the machines. The big buildings and technological advancements have all gone away, people have broken off into different communities and are surviving and creating their own settlements in the wild jungle that has taken over all of the world except for New York city. And we need more of Cole and Bracken too. I really like the investigating duo, and the mystery presented in this one but it kind of falls into the familiar genre. The ending suggests that they are going in a bolder direction with the new mystery being set not in New York but in the Wild actually. I am definitely intrigued and hope to pick up the second installment soon.
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