Reedsy Discovery

The vibes of this book are really great. I love the film noir type setting and the roguish detective character in Perrin. There's also an interesting mix of fantasy and sci-fi elements with fleshed out world-building details - the Meora people, in particular, add a lot of depth to the culture as well as being vital to the plot, and Jani-Fe (a Meora) was my personal favourite character. I enjoyed her and Perrin's dynamic and I could really visualise them in this world.

However, I did feel that the mystery elements of the story lacked intrigue as there was very little tension or emotion to anything being uncovered. For example, early on in the story Perrin is asked to look for a missing person, and pretty soon after this he discovers them dead. We don't have any real time to care about the missing person and the discovery of the body didn't make me feel anything. It's just another lead in a series of clues that move us forward in the story without making me invested in it.

For me, there wasn't a build up of tension and perhaps this was because the story focused on explanation rather than teasing the reader chapter by chapter. One chapter literally ends with Perrin saying, "Okay then. Please tell me more about your collective, and we'll see." Which is just not the kind of line that makes me desperate to know more as the tone is so contained and the stakes are non-existent. If the chapter had ended with some dramatic pre-initiation ritual Perrin needed to do in order to prove his interest in joining the collective, that would have heightens things. Not only by putting Perrin in possible danger, but letting us know that maybe Perrin's act isn't being believed by the collective, or showing how suspicious of an organisation it is and thereby making us suspicious of it. Chapters in general didn't end with any sense of danger but rather a resolution to the dangers or problems the characters faced during the chapter. (Note: there are two chapters towards the end that do have a sense of danger, but it's a repeated cliff-hanger with two consecutive chapters ending with the line "If they're still alive.")

Another aspect that dampened the intrigue was that the developments in the case were often explained to the reader through characters going back and forth over everything. Such as when a character goes over the background of the Meora people - telling us why the organisation was against the Meora people joining them, how people reacted to them, what the fears around their creation was and just all the context a reader might possibly wonder about. Only we aren't left time to wonder. Another example is when Perrin and Jani-Fe need to infiltrate a complex. It's a big mission with a lot of obstacles, but instead of the reader having a chance to feel the impossibility of the task, we're told step-by-step how they can achieve it. The mechanics of the plot is laid out to the reader time and time again.

Overall, the prose is good and the characters are fun and even the setting itself has enough to interest a reader, but a detective story - in my opinion - lives and dies by its mystery and unfortunately I wasn't invested in the case.

Helen Reynolds