Friday, August 12, 2016

Poison City by Paul Crilley Book Review

poison city paul crilley

Gideon Tau (better known as London Town to his colleagues) works in the occult investigative unit in the South African police force called the Delphic Division. Since his daughter was kidnapped and murdered, his life has fallen to pieces. His girlfriend has left him, all he does is work, drink and obsess about who killed his daughter Cally. He has two friends left: his fifty-something year old boss Armitage, another UK ex-pat from Yorkshire, and his spirit guide, a talking dog who loves to watch TV all day and drink sherry all night. Tau's cases have him in contact with all sorts of supernatural creatures, such as angels, demons, vampires and fae. While investigating the death of a low level vampire, Tau finally finds a link to his daughter and has to choose between revenge for Cally or do his job and help save the world.

I really liked this book! I first heard about it in one of Books and Pieces videos, which you can find here. I’ll be honest, the main reason this book intrigued me was because it reminded me of Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series, which I love, and while there are some similarities, it’s not a carbon copy. South Africa is a great setting for an urban fantasy and Crilley has done his research when it comes to lore and mythology around the world. While there is a lot of gore and fighting in this, I didn’t find it too unsettling but keep this is mind if that’s not your kind of thing. Gideon Tau is a solid narrator, I did feel like I really didn't get to know him but I think that's partly down to his torment over his daughter's death, that he’s lost who he is obsessing over this. I loved Dog and Armitage! They made me laugh out loud on so many occasions, especially when Armitage cracked jokes about Harry Potter (also, the fact that Crilley mentions that the UK’s version of the Delphic Division is called the Ministry tickled me!). Dog is so snide and dry, most of the lines I’ve highlighted and saved are from him. I particularly like this come back he had after Tau says he has something all figured out

‘London, you haven’t even figured out how much milk to put in your cereal yet. Consider me worried’.

This is a fast paced urban fantasy that has interesting characters, plenty of humour and some dark themes. I can’t wait to read the next one!

I received this digital advanced reader copy from NetGalley. I’m under no obligation to post reviews in exchange for the ARC. All opinions are my own, the reason I wrote this post is because I genuinely think the book is awesome!

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