Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure: A Low Town Novel (Low Town 1) [Paperback]

Over the last couple of years, there has been a growing trend in what I guess you would call low fantasy. These are novels that aren't overly interested in the antics of kings, or the fate of nations, quite the opposite in fact as they focus primarily on ordinary people. Joe Abercrombie's work springs to mind. The Straight Razor Cure is written in a similar vein.

Low Town has suffered through many terrible situations. From wars, where large portions of the population were killed, to plagues where bodies ended up rotting in the streets. Though times have been tough, the townsfolk just about managed to get by. Suddenly, a killer is stalking their children and many fear the return of the bad times.

When it comes to the denizens of Low Town, nobody is ever quite what they seem. The main protagonist, Warden is a perfect example of this. Down on his luck and no longer a member of military, his character flies in the face of your conventional fantasy hero. Warden is an ugly man, has violent tendencies and is a drug addict to boot. Not exactly the qualities you would you would expect in a leading man. Why then, did I find myself warming to him? Warden could have so easily been a one dimensional bully-boy, but when you read his interactions with those he cares about, you get glimpses of the man he once was prior to his fall from grace. This is a man that has seen (and probably done) horrible things in the past. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but at his core he retains a level of humanity that few of the other characters in the novel display.

The majority of magic and mystical elements that are used in the book are very low key, and this works well within the confines of the story. With a couple of notable exceptions, that are necessary for the plot to move forward, there is nothing that is too in your face. I like this toned down approach, as it gave the entire novel a much more realistic feel.

I enjoyed the way Polansky's writing shifted my suspicions from one character/potential killer, to the next. There were plenty of sufficiently blind alleys and red herrings that kept me on my toes.

Overall, Daniel Polansky's debut novel has been one of my favourite novels of this genre, so far this year. The blend of detective noir and fantasy seems like a good fit. This is a first class murder mystery with an eclectic cast of immoral characters, most of whom inhabit the sleazier side of humanity. They aren't a pleasant bunch but this does make it all the more interesting to read. The wintry streets of Low Town were great fun to visit and I hope I get the opportunity to read more of Warden's exploits in the future.

If you enjoy your fantasy dark and gritty then this could well be the novel for you. The Straight Razor Cure is available now.

Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure is a sharp, intelligent and somewhat bleak novel. It centres around the fictional `Low Town', the run down, scabrous heart of a larger city. The people in Low Town are poor, oppressed by their betters, and have more than their fair share of crime and general urban misery. The atmosphere is grim, though not unrelentingly so, with sparks of hope and joy scattered throughout, and I was quickly drawn in amongst the grime, the grit, the crime and the blood.

We are quickly introduced to `The Warden', a grizzled, pragmatic, emotionally wounded inhabitant of this city. He serves as our protagonist, as he begins to investigate (for entirely practical reasons), the murder of a child, which rapidly spins out of control. The investigation itself is convincing and well written - there are no leaps of faith, no requirements to suspend disbelief - the logic is, if not Holmesian, certainly sensible. Whilst there are unexpected twists and turns, none of them are dependent upon the framework of the setting; there are no cop-outs.

The fantasy detective fiction idea isn't entirely new; I was reminded of Glen Cooks 'Garrett, P.I.' series. However, where Cook's text draws on the drawing room exploits of Nero Wolfe and other golden age detectives, `Low Town' carries a more obvious edge - rather than Wolfe, it shares a heritage with the likes of James Elroy.

The supporting characters are plentiful, and recognisable, but it would have been nice for them to have had a little more depth; I suspect they'll be fleshed out as the series progresses. That said, part of this may be our restriction to the first-person view provided by The Warden - and some characters may just be unknowable.

The plot is filled with action, double dealing, and the occasional revelation, wrapped around a core of moral ambiguity. Whilst `page-turner' is an overused phrase, I was certainly finding reasons to keep reading with every page, and ended up tearing through the text.

Overall, this is an intelligent novel, with interesting themes running through it, with a compelling central character in a wonderfully evoked, morally ambiguous world. Well recommended.

Book Description
Rigus is the greatest city in the Thirteen Lands, a glittering metropolis of crystalline citadels and sumptuous manors, where the gentlewomen hide delicate smiles behind silken sleeves and bored nobles settle affairs of honour with cold steel. But light casts shadow, and in the darkness of the spires the baseborn struggle, eeking out an existence amidst the cast-offs of their betters. This is Low Town, a sprawling warren of side streets and back alleys, of boarded up windows and false storefronts. Here the corner boys do a steady trade to the dead-eyed and despairing, and a life can be bought with a clipped copper penny.

Low Town is an ugly place, and its champion is an ugly man. A former war hero and intelligence agent, now a crime lord addicted to cheap violence and expensive narcotics, the Warden spends his days hustling for customers and protecting turf, until the chance discovery of a murdered child sets him on a collision course with the life he'd left behind. As bodies bloat in the canal and winter buries the city, he plays a desperate game of deception, pitting the underworld powers against his former colleagues in the secret police, hoping to find the source of the evil before it consumes him, and perhaps the city itself.

In the tradition of Daniel Hammett and Gene Wolfe comes LOW TOWN THE STRAIGHT RAZOR CURE, a novel about the taint of blood and the impossibility of redemption. Bold, brilliant writing makes this a debut that will change the fantasy world landscape.

My Review
This is a story where Fantasy fans can get a taste of a hard boiled PI sort of character, with a good blend of dystopia and detective work in Low Town. The main protagonist is a Gritty been there and got the shirt detective Ex Low Town Government Special Services operative. He's now a man people fear on the streets, and is hired by the powers that be to find a murderer. The story is a straight forward search for killer story blended with a different setting, new rules and some new kind of characters to the long existing detective genre.
I am not head over heels in joy was an ok story, the author does present some skilled writing here.