Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure by Daniel Polansky

Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure (Low Town, #1)

by Daniel Polansky

Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found.

Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You'd struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his.

But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley.

And then another.

With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he's the only man with a hope of finding the killer.

If the killer doesn't find him first.



WINNER OF THE PRIX IMAGINALES AWARD FOR BEST FOREIGN NOVEL IN 2012.

Reviewed by wyvernfriend on

3 of 5 stars

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I seem to be on a non-deliberate kick of junkies who investigate and/or criminal underworlds, this one combines the two.

Warden is an ex-soldier, ex-cop and now he's a narcotic dealer who samples some of his wares, regularly. He's dragged into a murder mystery because he's the first on scene at two of the murders by coincidence and his ruthless ex-boss decides to use his underworld ties to help the investigation along. Warden gets involved in a lot of murky things to try to find out the truth, but the truth might just kill him.

This should score higher for me, it feels like a gritty 1920s type of story, after all the hero is a war veteran, and with early places namechecked from his history of Apres and Ives, you know that this is an influence, there was also a great plague that swept through the poor area (though this one was before, rather than after, the war) and there's a feeling of tensions and of change about to sweep through. There's also a detective story AND magic and you'd think that enough of my checkboxes would be ticked off to make me happy with this, but somehow it didn't sparkle for me, it didn't quite work in the ways it would have expected. It's not a bad story, don't get me wrong, it just didn't work in the ways that make it a great story for me. It was so very nearly a 4* read though, just not quite.

I do intend to read the rest of the series, it did do that for me, and I can see potential in the main character but he didn't really come alive for me enough. Hopefully as Polansky develops as a writer there will be more flesh on the bare bones of this character.

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  • Started reading
  • 28 November, 2012: Finished reading
  • 28 November, 2012: Reviewed