The name’s Fetch Phillips — what do you need?
Cover a Gnome with a crossbow while he does a dodgy deal? Sure.
Find out who killed Lance Niles, the big-shot businessman who just arrived in town? I’ll give it shot.
Help an old-lady Elf track down her husband’s murderer? That’s right up my alley.
What I don’t do, because it’s impossible, is search for a way to bring the goddamn magic back.
Rumors got out about what happened with the Professor, so now people keep asking me to fix the world.
But there’s no magic in this story. Just dead friends, twisted miracles, and a secret machine made to deliver a single shot of murder.
The Last Smile in Sunder City was one of my favourite novels, a sprawling imaginative urban fantasy – so immersing myself back into that world was something I’d been looking forward to for a while.
Dead Man In A Ditch is once again pretty awesome, we are back with erstwhile hero Fetch Phillips, in a land devoid of magic and of hope. His own hand in what happened haunts him still and often gets him into trouble. He is an engaging character on so many levels and that plus the cleverly drawn setting just immerses you into the story immediately.
In this installment there seems to be nefarious magical goings on, drawing Fetch into a murder, a mystery and putting him in danger – it is cleverly and beautifully done.
Luke Arnold writes with a descriptive flair and the kind of attention to detail that really digs deep into his characters and their world. The many displaced magical creatures are intriguingly beautiful, the tone is darkly ironic and often randomly humorous. It has all the twists and turns of a crime novel with all the imaginative focus of a fantasy giving you the best of both worlds.
Always wildly entertaining but also an intelligent analogy of our actual world with all its prejudices, the Sunder City series is truly excellent and I can’t wait for the next book . But sssh…discover for yourselves.
Highly recommended.
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You can purchase Dead Man In A Ditch (Orbit) Here.
Happy reading!
