Avail Yourself Missing, Presumed Undead Originated By Jeremy Davies Displayed As Copy
for Aurealis, since withdrawn, Katharine is a judge for the Aurealis Awards, This entry is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team. Missing, Presumed Undead is Elmore Leonard meets Dashiel Hammett meets Terry Pratchett with China Mieville peering through the window they got along fine until Terry spilt his tea all over Elmore's Italian sports jacket.
To be safe, I won't be recording my thoughts if I choose to here until after the AA are over,
It has an intriguing mystery driven plot, dipped in funny syrup and set in a classical fantasystyle world with the mood and magic driven "technology" of a Casablancastyle's detective story.
It isn't so much hard boiled as char grilled, with a side salad, This story follows a minotaur detective named Frank and his trusty side kick, And here is why I got hooked the story is from the sidekicks POV, And his helper None other than an enchanted blade named Rhys, who, if it wasnt obvious, is also a selfaware blade, Its such a fresh, different POV that I was immediately intrigued,
It wasnt just the POV, The story, which follows the disappearance of a young ladys body presumably through someone with necromancer skills, gives us a delicious mixup of noirstyle mystery with actionpacked situations and an urban fantasy setting, this book beautifully ties all three into an engaging story.
Snarky Rhys the blade cant help but add his digs in, proverbial and physical, along the way, We snake through Necromancers and attempted suicides, and up through GAOL and through Hightown, which is suffering all sorts of ills thanks to a murderer on the loose.
I dont want to give too many details away, as its how all the bits tie together that make this story really good.
In fact, the only quibble I have is that there were a few times where I wish the noir voice had been let up for the sake of simplicity/clarity.
I love reading noir, but there were a few times where the character had to go out of his way to explain something that in theory, he shouldnt have had to, or I had to reread a few times to make sure I understood exactly what was going on.
These were really minor moments in an otherwise stellar novel, Id happily read more in this world/series, If you like unique voices, or want a fresh take on noir/urban fantasy, then definitely take this book out for a spin.
A superbly funny and very quirky "detective" novel, A strange mixture ofs classic gumshoe and fantasy that just seems to work, You might think this unlikely when you learn that the lead character is a minotaur and his sidekick is a letter opener! Trust me on this.
Only available as an eBook download, You can get it from Fictionwise or from the publishers, Double Dragon Publishing, I love reading fantasy and I love crime noir, so once I saw the cover of Missing, Presumed Undead I had to read it.
I mean, seriously, who wouldn't pick up and read a book with a minotaur detective, complete with
fedora, on the cover, It is told from the point of view of the trusty sidekick Rhys, who just happens to be an enchanted knife in the possession of Frank, our minotaur detective.
I loved the way this novel took the usual grungy city setting of crime noir and gave it a substantial fantasy twist, complete with wyvern cabs and magicars and where The Body Politic Registry, various guilds, Guilstapo, narques and the criminal underworld all compete for power.
The story is complex and interesting, My only complaint was that at times the wise cracking, hard bitten narration from Rhys, tends to overpower and distract from the rest of the story.
However this is very well written, clever, witty and quirky, It's well worth the read, Jeremy Davies is made of ink, but dont dip a feather in him, It tickles. He once painted a fingernail black and no one really noticed, He was disappointed. Hes also an editor, a religious atheist, a liker of strong coffees, a Shakespeare lover, a political anarchist and someone who rarely has a pen when he needs one.
He has been a PhD candidate, a personal trainer, a life model, a bouncer, an infantry soldier and someone who rarely had a pen when he needed one.
He has had words published in a variety of places, in a variety of publications, in a variety of forms, in a variety of moments: Canada, Wet Ink, SMS and twelve minutes past three in the afternoon being some of these.
His first novel sitelink Missing Presumed Undead will be re published by S Jeremy Davies is made of ink, but dont dip a feather in him.
It tickles. He once painted a fingernail black and no one really noticed, He was disappointed. Hes also an editor, a religious atheist, a liker of strong coffees, a Shakespeare lover, a political anarchist and someone who rarely has a pen when he needs one.
He has been a PhD candidate, a personal trainer, a life model, a bouncer, an infantry soldier and someone who rarely had a pen when he needed one.
He has had words published in a variety of places, in a variety of publications, in a variety of forms, in a variety of moments: Canada, Wet Ink, SMS and twelve minutes past three in the afternoon being some of these.
His first novel sitelink Missing Presumed Undead will be re published by Satalyte Publishing in February, with to be written, sitelink.