Author: Daniel Plansky
Genre: Noir Fantasy
series: ?
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
I received this book for review from Doubleday.
Summary: Drug dealers, hustlers, brothels, dirty politics, corrupt cops . . . and sorcery. Welcome to Low Town.
In the forgotten back alleys and flophouses that lie in the shadows of Rigus, the finest city of the Thirteen Lands, you will find Low Town. It is an ugly place, and its champion is an ugly man. Disgraced intelligence agent. Forgotten war hero. Independent drug dealer. After a fall from grace five years ago, a man known as the Warden leads a life of crime, addicted to cheap violence and expensive drugs. Every day is a constant hustle to find new customers and protect his turf from low-life competition like Tancred the Harelip and Ling Chi, the enigmatic crime lord of the heathens.
The Warden’s life of drugged iniquity is shaken by his discovery of a murdered child down a dead-end street . . . setting him on a collision course with the life he left behind. As a former agent with Black House—the secret police—he knows better than anyone that murder in Low Town is an everyday thing, the kind of crime that doesn’t get investigated. To protect his home, he will take part in a dangerous game of deception between underworld bosses and the psychotic head of Black House, but the truth is far darker than he imagines. In Low Town, no one can be trusted.
My thoughts: I first stumbled upon this novel while browsing for new books to read on Amazon, and was immediately caught by the book's tagline "Drug dealers, hustlers, brothels, dirty politics, corrupt cops . . . and sorcery. Welcome to Low Town." I was a little wary about reading this book because I usually have a hard time reading from a male protagonist POV. I have read many fantasy novels but none in the noir fantasy genre. As I mentioned before the synopsis was too intriguing to by pass, so I took the plunged into my first noir fantasy narrated by a male protagonist.
I am so glad that I read this novel, I knew it was gonna be interesting...but thought it would be a "good" novel at most. The novel turn out to exceed my expectation, it is everything that it said it would be and more. The book starts out with the main protagonist, the Warden, an ex-agent member turn drug-dealer finding a murdered child down a dead end street. Instead of ignoring it like many of the other murders that happen in Low Town, he begins investigating it. What the Warden learns will have him pushing his friends away, and the underworld crime lords knocking on his door.
The world that Mr. Polansky created is so unique, mixing fantasy, with kinda an old world and present world feel to it. The Warden, isn't a character that people usually warm up to but I really liked his character. I love his "I don't give a shit" attitude. As for the secondary characters, they were interesting and made the book more enjoyable and let readers get a sense of what ''Low Town'' is all about. The novel never had a dull moment, it was full of action and suspense as we go along with the Warden as he unravels the mysteries of the missing and murdered children. If you're looking for something new to read, look no further. This is an engrossing dark and gritty novel, that will keep readers at the edge of their seats in figuring out who the killer is. The conclusion will have reader shocked, when we find out who the mastermind is behind all the killings.I hope that Mr. Polansky writes a sequel to Low Town, these are the type of characters that you want to continue reading about and a world that you don't want to leave. I will be picking up all future books written by Mr. Polasnky, this is a debut novel not to be missed!
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