'The Double-Edged Sword' Book one of The Nowhere Chronicles by Sarah SILVERWOOD

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Finmere Tingewick Smith was abandoned on the steps of the Old Bailey. Under the guardianship of the austere Judge Harlequin Brown and the elderly gentlemen of Orrery House, Fin has grown up under a very strange set of rules. He spends alternate years at two very different schools and now he's tired of the constant lies to even his best friends, to hide the insanity of his double life. Neither would believe the truth!But on his sixteenth birthday, everything changes. The Judge is killed, stabbed in the chest with a double-edged sword that's disturbingly familiar, and from that moment on, Fin is catapulted into an extraordinary adventure. Through the Doorway in Fin's London, a hole in the boundaries of Existence, lies another London - and now both are in grave danger. For the Knights of Nowhere have kidnapped the Storyholder, the keeper of the Five Eternal Stories which weave the worlds together.

‘The Double-Edged Sword’ is the first book in Sarah Silverwood’s Young Adult series, ‘The Nowhere Chronicles’.

Our hero is Finmere Tingewick Smith. Or ‘Fin’ as he is to be known. Fin has an interesting story to go with his interesting name. Abandoned on the steps of London’s Old Bailey, he was a baby wrapped in a blanket and with nothing but a man’s ring for identification. Fin was taken in and raised by Judge Brown, and mysteriously schooled at two very different institutions. . . one school in London as we know it, and the other school in ‘Somewhere’ London, in the world of Nowhere. When Judge Brown is murdered Fin’s duality throws him into danger and chaos. . . when the Knights of Nowhere, led by St John Golden, try to take control of all parallel worlds Fin must choose where to take a stand.

“Oh, I know you, Finmere, even if we haven’t met before. As for this room. . . well, I’m not entirely sure it is here. Some rooms are like time. Funny places.” He wheeled himself a little closer. “It’s your birthday, isn’t it? How old are you now?”
“Sixteen.”
The man in the chair grinned and leaned backwards, folding his hands. A black and gold ring glittered on his finger. He let out a little chuckle, then sighed. “Sixteen, eh? That’s an interesting age for you. It’s almost like you’re stuck between two worlds.” He laughed softly as if at a private joke and shuffled beneath his blanket. A flash of metal was quickly hidden beneath the wool, but not before Fin had seen it. What was that? It looked like the hilt of a sword, but surely it couldn’t be?

Sarah Silverwood is actually the penname of Sarah Pinborough, who also writes ‘The Dog-Faced Gods’ trilogy of post financial-apocalyptic crime fiction. I really enjoyed first book, ‘A Matter of Blood’, so I was intrigued to read Pinborough writing YA as Silverwood. And I wasn’t disappointed. . .

‘The Double-Edged Sword’ is Young Adult Urban Fantasy. And when I say ‘urban fantasy’ I mean the book is luxuriating in UF conventions. The book is a wonderful blend and balance of fantasy and city, set in London. . . or at least, a parallel ‘Nowhere’ version of the London we know. Silverwood’s London is a place of fantastical steampunk proportions, an amalgamation of magic and era that blends into a wonderful character unto itself. The ‘Nowhere’ concept reminded me of Ilona Andrews’s ‘The Edge’ for the warped city reality and is a wonderful backdrop for the epic battles that takes place within its realm.

Fin is the stand-out character. I love it when YA authors write young heroic characters – when they let their characters wade into danger, stand up for themselves and prove their worth. Silverwood has written such a character in Fin. Expect to be wowed by his swordplay, stiff upper lip and charisma. He is sixteen, but you must remember that YA readers read ‘up’ so sometimes he comes across a little younger. Regardless, he’s a fine protagonist to go on this (long) journey with. I look forward to following his adventures in upcoming books.

The bad-guy fell a bit short. St John Golden is a dark Knight who is determined to take control of all parallel worlds. He’s a bit of a cardboard cut-out villain – but even though he was a little obvious, he was still fun to read and despise. And his being polar-opposite to Fin made for fun good vs. evil power-playing.

"Let's settle this like the honourable Knights that we used to be. Let these boys go and I'll meet you in St Paul's and we'll duel."
St John laughed. "St Paul's? What, the Whispering Chamber? You are such a romantic."
"Not St Paul's in the Somewhere. Here."

There is a cliff-hanger ending. . . there has to be, since this is the first of (at least) three books. Not to give anything away. . . but the ending isn’t so frustrating that *nothing* is resolved, nor is it so neatly wrapped that you’re not left salivating for the next instalment. Silverwood writes a nice balance, at once satiating reader’s curiosity while also piquing it.

Next book is ‘The Traitor’s Gate’ and is due for an April 2011 release and I will definitely be reading it.

4.5/5

'A Matter of Blood' by Sarah PINBOROUGH

Received from the publisher

From the BLURB:

The recession that grips the world has left it exhausted. Crime is rising in every major city. Financial institutions across the world have collapsed, and most governments are now in debt to The Bank, a company created by the world's wealthiest men. But Detective Inspector Cass Jones has enough on his plate without worrying about the world at large. His marriage is crumbling, he's haunted by the deeds of his past, and he's got the high-profile shooting of two schoolboys to solve - not to mention tracking down a serial killer who calls himself the Man of Flies. Then Cass Jones' personal world is thrown into disarray when his brother shoots his own wife and child before committing suicide - leaving Cass implicated in their deaths.

And when he starts seeing silent visions of his dead brother, it's time for the suspended DI to go on the hunt himself - only to discover that all three cases are linked ...As Jones is forced to examine his own family history, three questions keep reappearing: what disturbed his brother so badly in his final few weeks? Who are the shadowy people behind The Bank? And, most importantly, what do they want with DI Cass Jones?

‘A Matter of Blood’ is the first book in Sarah Pinborough’s ‘The Dog-Faced Gods’ trilogy.

This is a dark and sinister read. Not least of all because it hits so close to home. Pinborough is writing about a not-too-distant future, only a few years away in fact. The GFC (Global Financial Crisis) has not abated, and in an effort to limit the fallout a conglomerate World Bank is created. Funded by billionaires Gates and Branson, in partnership with Japan, China and Russia, ‘The Bank’ now runs all of the Western World’s property and bank accounts in a bid to stave off a crippling depression. It is indeed a corporate-run world, and the times they are a changin’. Crime is on the rise, health-care is nonexistent and citizens are on-edge.

It is in this climate that the city of London is rocked by reports of a serial killer on the loose. ‘The man of flies is among us’ – preying on young women and leaving a gruesome maggot trademark that the papers would salivate over.

On the case is Detective Inspector Cassius ‘Cass’ Jones.

DI Jones brings to mind a very apt Raymond Chandler quote; “Police business is a hell of a problem. It's a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there's nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get.”

Jones is an imperfect hero, to say the least. He is dogged by memories of an undercover stint, in which the criminal underworld lured him in, and never really let him go. He is a self-confessed skirt-chaser whose marriage to wife Kate has never fully recovered from his first, and subsequent, infidelities. He snorts coke (recreationally) and has far too much in common with the heavyweight criminals he polices.

But there’s something undeniably appealing about Cass Jones, even when there shouldn’t be. He is very aware of his various vices, even embarrassed by them. He believes himself to be irredeemable - a lifetime of bad choices and stupid mistakes and he’s all but written himself off. He is his own underdog, and you can’t help but hope that he finds something within himself that is worth fighting for.

Cass smiled back. ‘I’m capable of a lot of things, Gary. We both know that.’ He leaned in closer, as if about to whisper a secret, and was pleased to see a twitch of something close to fear in Bowman’s own expression. ‘And another thing we both is that I’ll always be the better fucking copper. So keep my case warm for me and I’ll see you when this is sorted.’

Cass turned and walked away before Bowman could speak. He hoped he couldn’t see his clenched fists in the pockets of his own off-the-rack suit jacket.

Despite all of his negatives, Cass Jones is a damn good cop. Not least of all because he feels an obligation to the victims whose murders he investigates. He imagines those victims are clawing at him, their hands always picking at his clothes as they beg for his attention and delivery of justice.

He squeezed his dead brother’s memory to one side and felt it instantly replaced by the cold fingers of the murdered dead that quietly pulled at him. It felt like they’d torn a way through his skin as easily as digging up through the soft earth of a grave. Coke was a fucker like that. When it woke you up, it woke all of you up.

It’s an eerie image that Jones conjures for himself; but it illustrates his relentlessness, and the heavy burden he places on himself to do the right thing. If not for himself, then for the dead whose afterlife is entrusted to him.

Jones’s already complicated life is further shattered when his younger brother commits murder-suicide; killing his wife, son and then himself. Jones is dragged into the murky depths of his brother’s murderous motivations – and Jones comes perilously close to the breaking point when he starts seeing his dead brother’s ghost.

What is this eerie apparition trying to communicate to Cass? And how does his brother’s death link to ‘The Bank’ and the ‘Lord of Flies’ serial killer?

This book is an absolute feast of genre. It is a thriller, but with heavy supernatural undertones that undercut the murder-mystery and make it all the more sinister and intriguing. Pinborough evokes such a bleak setting and her characters are so gray that her writing is reminiscent of noir 'hardboiled' fiction. And certain aspects are also quite Shakespearean; like Cass's dead brother haunting him from beyond the grave being Hamlet-esque in reference. Pinborough is quite masterful in her marrying of these various genres and sub-genres, making the book a truly exciting read.

Pinborough can write gritty and gruesome with the best of them, but it’s her over-arcing conspiracy/thriller plot that will lure you in and ensure that ‘A Matter of Blood’ stays with you long after you’ve put the book down.

In ‘A Matter of Blood’ Pinborough has built a very bleak future that is entirely too close for comfort. She weaves a tangled web that I cannot wait to unravel in the next two books of the ‘God-Faced Dogs’ trilogy.

5/5