I know you’re not supposed judge a book by its cover, but we all do it. This cover, while not bad, had one thing that stuck out and seemed to grab my attention (good thing, right?) that really bugged me. The subtitle: “What would you take to avoid the dark?” bugged the heck out of me. You know why? Because I felt it should have said, “what would you DO”. Boy was I wrong. Read the synopsis and find out why I was wrong and why once again an old adage proves itself to be true. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Read it then pass judgement.
Fans of noir detective films and dystopian futures should find this book interesting.
City of Darkness: What would you take to avoid the dark?
Detective Sebastian Kessler lives and works within the towering metropolis of Dis, a toxic urban sprawl where every day is a battle for light, a fight for better air and a struggle to live. Within this urban tomb, Kessler tries to escape the daily grind through a drink and drug habit that has spiralled out of control, an addiction that gets him into serious trouble with local crime boss ‘Little Chi’.
With work hard to come by and credits running low, Kessler is on the brink of despair when he is hired by Bethany Turner to investigate her uncle’s mysterious death. Soon the Council, the tyrannical rulers of Dis, are after him, citizens are mysteriously disappearing and a new, powerful drug is doing the rounds, all of which are connected to the Turner case.
With the bodies of addicts piling up in skin labs and strange creatures emerging from the depths of the city, Kessler tracks down Doc Galloway, an old acquaintance, and forces him to help. Together they embark on an epic journey into the heart of the city where the detective not only has to deal with his own personal demons, but those that lurk within the darkness of Dis…
Set in a bleak, distant future, City of Darkness combines the flawed hero of the 1950s film noir detective with a broken society where the remnants of humanity struggle to survive. The book touches on issues such as class, addiction and escaping reality as readers are taken on a journey down into the depths of a troubled city, with the age old appeal of science fiction and a crime and mystery story never far away.