Titan Song (Carter Archives, #3)

by Dan Stout

The third book in the acclaimed Carter Archives noir fantasy series returns to the gritty town of Titanshade, where danger lurks around every corner.

Forbidden magic, murder... and disco. Carter's day keeps getting worse.

With the return of spring, new life floods into Titanshade. The sun climbs higher and stays longer, the economy is ascendant, and ever more newcomers arrive to be part of the city's rebirth. Even pop culture has taken notice, with a high-profile concert only days away. When a band member's murder threatens to delay the show, the diva star performer demands that the famous Detective Carter work the case. But Carter has secrets of his own, and his investigation unearths more victims and dark secrets, triggering a spiral of deceit, paranoia, and nightmarish magical transformations.

As conspiracies are exposed, Carter is sucked even deeper into the machinations of the rich, the powerful, and the venerated. Soon the very foundations of the city threaten to collapse and Carter's own freedom is on the line as he navigates between old enemies and fragile new alliances while racing to learn the true cause of this horrific series of deaths.

• ISBN10: 0756417465
• ISBN13: 9780756417468
• Publish Date: 6 April 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: DAW Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780756417468

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Titan Song is the third book in the Carter Archives SF police procedural series by Dan Stout. Released 6th April 2021 by Penguin Random House on their DAW imprint, it's 384 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a superbly written gritty noir procedural with a lot more. Dan Stout is a genuinely gifted writer (in whatever genre) and this book was a pleasure to read. The noir aspects of the writing would do credibly well in a side-by-side comparison with Hammett, Ellroy, and Dorothy Hughes. The plotting is finely tuned and well controlled. The characters (an ensemble cast) are distinct, easy to remember, and believably motivated.

There's a 70's cop vibe (pagers, disco, 8 track tapes) which plays along nicely with the extraterrestrial setting and humanoid alien species. In addition to the really solid mystery and police procedural aspects, it's set in an SF world where magic is real and not entirely well understood.

This is the third book in a series and in this case, there's quite a lot of continuity involved with character and plot development. It certainly *could* be read as a standalone, but it would be improved by being read in series order. My own review was delayed a while because I wanted to go chase down the other 2 currently extant books before finishing this one.

I would recommend this one to fans of noir procedurals even if they don't normally read SF. The writing is superb, the world building is meticulously detailed and the characters are believable. The denouement and resolution are clever and the whole is pleasantly twisty and engaging. There are even some humorous moments. For fans of SF mysteries, this is my best read in the genre for 2021 thus far.

Five stars. Superb.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.