Author: Ian Tregillis
Synopsis:
Ian Tregillis's Something More Than Night is a Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler inspired murder mystery set in Thomas Aquinas’s vision of Heaven. It’s a noir detective story starring fallen angels, the heavenly choir, nightclub stigmatics, a priest with a dirty secret, a femme fatale, and the Voice of God.
Somebody has murdered the angel Gabriel. Worse, the Jericho Trumpet has gone missing, putting Heaven on the brink of a truly cosmic crisis. But the twisty plot that unfolds from the murder investigation leads to something much bigger: a con job one billion years in the making.
Because this is no mere murder. A small band of angels has decided to break out of heaven, but they need a human patsy to make their plan work.
Much of the story is told from the point of view of Bayliss, a cynical fallen angel who has modeled himself on Philip Marlowe. The yarn he spins follows the progression of a Marlowe novel—the mysterious dame who needs his help, getting grilled by the bulls, finding a stiff, getting slipped a mickey.
Angels and gunsels, dames with eyes like fire, and a grand maguffin, Something More Than Night is a murder mystery for the cosmos.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013
Review:
Now let me start off with one thing: the cover! Isn't it amazing? The color choices draw your eye right to it and its unique enough that you will stop and pick it up off a shelf just to read the back. I absolutely loved the black and white cover with the blood red angel wings. It's classy, attractive and almost promises to be enticing at first glance. OK, maybe it is because black, red and white are my favorite colors but I loved it.
One of my guilty pleasures is noir detective novels, I could read them all day long. Now I know what your thinking, on this blog? Well it also has angels (we all know I love angel story lines, especially fallen angels), dirty little (and big) secrets and mystery. Sigh. I am in heaven and I haven't even told you any spoilers yet!
OK, yes mixing all of these components into one book seems a bit off but Ian Tregillis pulls it off! It's unique, dystopian, gritty, angelic, mysterious and urban all in one. The best part of it is that it works. I don't know if I have read any other authors that could have pulled this off so well.
Technically, this book is off the charts. The writing style is unique and amazing creating a world that you'll escape to in your head. The words that were chosen are descriptive and enlightening, not just filler.
I really liked the narrator and main character Bayliss. He is of a different era, when you get to know him you start picturing classic movies and men dressed to the 9's smoking cigars. He was amazing through out the story.
I really urge you to pick up a copy and read it, even if detective noir books aren't your cup of tea. It is a detective noir that crosses into fantasy and paranormal. A treat for all of us readers that can't decide on what genre we like best (like me).
I received a copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
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