Old York… cobbled streets where dreams are made of
Synopsis
Arcane archivist Harper has always been plagued by dreams of grotesque creatures and bloody deaths. When she bumps into a ghostwalker in the Shambles and has a visceral experience of his execution, she knows it’s a foretelling. Yet fear of the Queen’s Guard stops her speaking out. When her vision indeed comes true, the unusual markings on the ghostwalker’s corpse, combined with his neatly excised vocal cords, send a ripple of terror through York. The witch hunt is on. As the body count rises, Harper knows her magic is the only way to find the killer – if she can avoid being hanged as a witch. To protect both human and supernatural, Harper walks the thin line between their worlds. She and her demonhunter foster-sister form a multi-faith team with a forensic scientist, a spirit Harper accidentally summoned, and a techno-witch, to catch the killer before more people die.
Review
I love York. It’s my favourite place in the world, specifically the square mile around the landmark cathedral that is York Minster. Among its medieval tiny cobbled streets and haunted pubs, you can teleport directly into the past, and nowhere else have I found that can bring me to tears simply by walking its atmosphere-drenched alleyways (it helps if I’ve been frequenting some of these haunted pubs for a few hours). Sometimes the tourists are right.
So an author choosing to set their novel in an alternate modern-day York, where supernatural creatures are only kept out of the city (and indeed the country) thanks to a magical veil, and the Big Brother-like Queen’s Guard are the last defence against such creatures intruding into our human lives? What’s that, I can’t hear you over the sound of me tattooing the name of the book on my back.
But with this wickedly atmospheric cross-genre debut, part mystery, part horror, part urban fantasy, Alethea Lyons has put in the work that such a prime setting demands, and the result is an ode to the fair city of fable that knocks your socks off.
Into the pitch-perfect supernatural set up I described above Lyons has inserted a bunch of memorable characters that reminded me of a version of the Buffy crew (millennials unite!) There’s Harper, the supernatural archivist/witch (Willow), Grace, the arse-kicking monster hunter (Buffy), the witty scene-stealing demon Heresy (obviously Spike, the villain turned good), and the lovable forensic supernaturalist Saqib (Giles meets Xander I guess?) If I’m alienating you with the Buffy talk (stop being so young), my point is that Lyons has crafted a team of vibrant, fantastically sculpted characters, who, when they finally come together as a team, spark off each other with such wit and verve that it feels like you’ve been in their company forever.
This witty cast of absorbing characters is tasked with solving a series of horrific ritualistic murders in York, which seem to suggest that one of the aforementioned supernatural creatures has managed to get into the city. Lyons has a trump card here which is that you see the murders from the point of view of the killer – though their true identity is not revealed till the end in one of the year’s truly great “I should have guessed but realistically I would never have guessed” twists – and what a memorable, hauntingly chilling point of view it is, alternating between horrific gore and heart-breakingly poignant as we start to realise that this killer is a reluctant one, and not everything that the humans of the city have been told about the supernatural creatures is true.
One of the many remarkable things about this book is the atmosphere, and how the prose evokes this. The descriptions of the mist-filled city; its medieval spires, its river banks, its ginnels and alleyways, leap off the page and drag you into the ethereal streets themselves. Then there are scenes in this book that descend into a surreal mix of Guillermo Del Toro and Tim Burton; astonishingly creepy, abstract settings brought to life by the artistically crafted descriptions. There is a visit to an Undertaker’s (technically a Ghostwalker’s) that is prime Sleepy Hollow. Then there is perhaps my favourite scene in the book: a visit to a supernatural auction in a different dimension; part Pan’s Labyrinth, part Dali.
It’s a real achievement for a debut author to have so successfully sharpened their prose to deliver such visual treats while at the same time crafting a bunch of characters each of which could front their own TV show. That shapeshifting demon I mentioned earlier, Heresy? You will be obsessed. I know I was.
Overall, this is a horror/mystery/fantasy chimera so drenched in atmosphere and wickedly crafted prose that you’ll need a change of clothes after reading it. If you didn’t love York before this, you’ll be booking a ticket there after. A masterful debut.
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