A Slightly Different View of Los Angeles

Genre busting is a tough business, and it only works if you have the writerly chops to really step up and break some things. That's what you get here.

This is basically a police procedural tipped toward the noir side of the ledger. The plot doesn't make a lot of sense and there isn't really a "mystery" in the traditional sense. A dogged investigator tracks down a murderer by traveling down the mean streets of a mean place, dispensing his own form of justice as he goes. That sounds familiar enough.

But. Our "Information Man" is a detective in Hell. There are no good guys and the bad guys are literally from Hell. There are lots of books - westerns, sci-fi, alternate universe, think pieces, thrillers, supernatural adventure - that position the hero in Hell and set him a task. But I can't think of many that so effectively meld the conventions of police procedural framing with a coherently and creatively imagined Hell that seems to actually exist as an actual place. And that's where the real pleasures lie in this book.

Characters are strong and compelling. Atmosphere is thick, heavy and true. The internal logic of the infernal place makes sense, even if it's all infused with a vague and ethereal sense. And this may be Hell, but the writing is divine. There is assured command in the big set pieces, and tremendous power and energy in the driving narrative. And Unsworth can describe light. Light and dark, but especially light, (we have angel characters), are practically characters in their own right. Lots of authors have tried to describe angels, but by gosh Unsworth does majesty and ethereal divinity stunningly well.

It may be that the always shifting balance between angelic beauty and Hellish horror is what really moves this book up to a different level than just some crime read. However you explain it, though, this is an immersive, disturbing, fascinating and rewarding read.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)