The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

The Lies of Locke Lamora is the first book of the Gentleman Bastard sequence, and tells the tale of the titular Locke Lamora (or the Thorn of Camorr) as he tries to pull off a massive con against one of the Dons of Camorr with the help of the gang of Gentleman Bastards. While this is being played out, Locke learns that he is in the middle of a war between the Grey King and Capa Barsavi that has dreadful repercussions for both him personally and the city of Camorr.

I enjoyed this book. Thoroughly. It was entertaining, good fun and left me with a smile on my face. When I wasn't reading it, I found my thoughts dwelling on it and wondering what events would come next, which I think is the mark of an excellent book.

Before I start with specific thoughts, likes and dislikes, I just want to make a couple of observations. The first is that, in a mystery novel, I like to try and work out the secret identity of the secret personage who is committing the crime, and try to discover why they might be doing terrible things. In this novel, unless I'm being completely dense, there was no way we could piece together clues to find out who the Grey King was and why he declared war on Capa Barsavi. I think the novel would have been even stronger had the reader been able to play this game.

The second is that The Lies of Locke Lamora seems to fit more into the canon of literature led by Alexandre Dumas - swash-buckling high adventure - rather than anything from the field of genre fiction. Barring the use of Bondsmages, this novel could easily be set in Renaissance Italy. The term 'unique' is thrown around with abandonment, but, in this case, I would say it is justified - even though I am four years late to the party, The Lies of Locke Lamora feels fresh and new and exciting.

This is not to say the whole book is perfect. Lynch does a fabulous turn in dialogue - his characters mock each other; cry bloody vengeance without sounding cliched; and have conversations that sound natural. Every part of The Lies of Locke Lamora that involves characters in face to face encounters is pure gold. It is just a shame that, for me, some of the remaining prose sounds a little dry and wooden at times. When Lynch needs to introduce a new part of Camorr, or describe the games commoners play, it is not done smoothly - rather we are handed a section of rather dry exposition that sits uneasily next to the glittering dialogue. This might be a matter of taste, but I found these points clumsy for an author who shows such skills elsewhere.

I have to mention the language as well. That is, the realistic swearing (i.e. words like f**k etc.). I believe it has probably been pointed out by other reviewers. The fact is, I would probably have complained if Lynch had come up with his own swear words - at that point, I would have been muttering about silly made-up words that sound false. I'm not absolutely sure that Lynch could win on this point either way, but the realistic swear-words jarred me out of my read, which I found a little frustrating. Certainly the swearing 'fit' the characters, since they were from the lower end of the social spectrum, but the choice of words did not 'fit'.

One of my friends who read The Lies of Locke Lamora and loved it mentioned to me the point of alchemy and how it is employed in the novel - and I find myself agreeing. That is, it seems a 'dialed-in' plot device. At points it was used to nice effect, such as the method of lighting the streets and buildings, and I enjoyed the 'genetics' part of it, where trees were given additional attributes thanks to alchemy. However, at other points, it seemed as though Lynch used it in a slightly deus ex machina fashion - such as during the calamity that Capa Raza tries to inflict on the nobility of Camorr.

The use of flashbacks in The Lies of Locke Lamora was inspired, and I found myself enjoying the exploits of the younger Locke far more than his older counterpart. I also loved the way that the flashbacks would lend weight to future events - a form of foreshadowing, if you will. It was a clever way of helping to build facts necessary into the plot, without using the tired exposition that Lynch sometimes fell back on. A couple of times I would say that the flashbacks were either unnecessary, or ill-placed - my example here would be where the background to the Bondsmages is introduced. We've already been advised that people *really* don't want to get on the bad side of Bondsmages through some clever dialogue - this section slowed down the overall read and added no depth to the novel.

In my opinion this is a fabulous novel, with some flaws. It isn't the instant classic some would have had me believe, but it is a cracking piece of storytelling and I envy those who are about to embark on it for the first time.

Dante's Journey by J C Marino

A flash of light and Detective Joe Dante steps through. No longer on the cobblestone streets of 1961 Boston, Joe finds himself in a horrifying new world - Hell itself. Joe was in hot pursuit of his family's killer, drug lord Filippo Argenti, when both were killed, and isn't about to let a little thing like death slow him down. So, with a healthy dose of New England stubbornness and the help of a mysterious guide, Virgil DiMini, Joe must evade angry demons and search ever-lower through the rings of the original Dante's Inferno in hopes of finding justice for his wife and children. However, Joe will soon discover that behind every sin lies a secret and each secret revealed could land Joe in an eternity of hot water...

Dante's Journey was a real surprise. The blurb on the back doesn't do the story within the pages justice, in my opinion, because this was an unusual and compelling tale of learning moral aspects of your own character, as well as a trip through the circles of Hell. We spend as much time on Dante's journey to inner peace and rediscovery of faith as we do on his actual journey through Hell.

The strengths of this novel are the writing, which is exuberant good fun, and the characterisation - every single one of those characters deserves to be in hell for their various misdemeanours, and yet Marino manages to make you empathise with them and understand how they could have committed their crimes. I liked the manner in which Marino described the various people Dante meets on his journey, and the fact that they come from all different periods in history, including future periods that he wouldn't be aware of, having died in 1961. This creates some comic interludes.

Just as an aside, I'm also impressed with Marino's level of research: not only are the circles of hell represented very much as in the original Inferno, but he knew that Joe Dante would have been able to see Bugs Bunny before his death in 1961, since Bugs was "born" in 1940! (yes, I like my cartoons!)

As mentioned, the scenes in hell were descriptive - energetic and horrific, by turn. For example: "Without any kind of communication among them, all the iron demons started slashing simultaneously. My eyes still forced open, I watched as the sinners were systematically dismembered and disemboweled by the sword and axe-wielding demons.

'Listen to me,' a Nazi pleaded. 'You never listen to me. I was under orders, you understand. Under orders. Under orders!'

The demon ignored him, plunging his dagger-like fingers into the Nazi's gut."

Despite the horror of some of these scenes, the humour in the novel is ever-present: snappy dialogue between Joe Dante and Argenti being key, as well as some rather slapstick moments:

" 'Faster,' I sang out.

'I am,' Argenti sang back.

'Pull!'

'What? Are you pulling?'

'Yeah.'

'I was pushing.'

We both stared at each other for a moment, not knowing which one of us was the idiot."

I also liked Marino's method of using flashbacks interspersed throughout the main body of the novel to show what really happened to Joe Dante in the time leading up to his death. This represented the idea that, until Dante had his epiphany in the ninth circle of hell, he is, in fact, a deeply unreliable narrator thanks to his hatred for Argenti. It was a neat trick.

On the whole, I enjoyed the book tremendously, although I do think the 'running time' was a little on the long side. There were flabby periods throughout that didn't add a great deal to the overall story - it just needed a little bit of tightening up. Also, the constant encounters with the demons became mighty repetitive at times, and I thought a couple of them could be cut with ease.

And Virgil annoyed me, purely because we weren't given enough hints on the way through about who he might be. I like to work out these little mysteries myself, and I either was not given enough to go on (in the early part of the story) or told outright (in the later part of the novel) - this could have been balanced a little better.

I am very glad a took a chance on this small press book. It was a fun read, with a warm heart and lots of lovely self-realisation. Joe Dante was a vibrant and realistic character and I enjoyed going on his journey. Recommended.

Author website

Dark Knights of the Soul by Jeremy Simpson

Dark Knights of the Soul tells of a neo-Templar Order located on the Swiss/German border at the end of the 20th century. The public image they project is of the original Templar: one of protection of Jerusalem and its holy shrines. However their ambition is to control the Temple Mount under the auspices of the United Nations. To achieve this they plan the destruction of the Muslim Dome of the Rock using men dressed as Israeli soldiers. They ally themselves with a neo-Teutonic order of Knights, whilst the charismatic Grand Master of the neo-Templar Order prophesises the 9/11 attacks on America. He claims access to the Holy Grail in a hidden Templar abbey in Armenia which will provide the 'elixir of youth' to its inner circle of Templar leaders. Meanwhile, the Order invites three historians to study their archives - two historians from Cambridge and one from Harvard. The academics not only stumble on the Jerusalem plot, but also the dark secrets of the Order's spiritual activities, revolving around ancient Mithraic sacrificial practices. The very essence of evil becomes a stark reality as the three historians realise they have mistakenly become embroiled in a plot which threatens the balance of world power.

I'm going to find this review hard to write. You see, I like books that involve the mysterious Templars. I also enjoy books that take a concept such as the Templars or the Holy Grail, and wrap a thriller around it (yes, I found the Da Vinci Code quite diverting). Dark Knights of the Soul ticked all those boxes and should have been a novel I enjoyed! There were some scenes that I found entertaining, but overall this was just a poorly-written book that became difficult to enjoy.

I want to first mention the good point of the novel. On a couple of occasions, Simpson developed some scenes that had a feeling of oppressive menace, especially while the four students were in the Templar Castle and trying to discover the true intentions of the Grand Master. There was distasteful imagery in the Chapel, and the concept of burying people alive, that sent a chill down the spine.

Honestly, the story wasn't awful - it was mainly the execution that I struggled with, for the following reasons (which I shall try to keep as constructive as possible).

My first point is the rather clumsy foreshadowing that Simpson employed. This includes the fact that Chapter One involved showing a scene that came halfway through the actual novel. I would encourage Simpson to employ a Prologue if he chooses to foreshadow in his next novel - the book will read more smoothly. I would also encourage him to avoid sentences such as: "As later events unfolded, the significance of his expression 'our God' took on a darker meaning." I believe Simpson was using this style to try and generate tension, and I have seen the method employed successfully in other novels, but in this case it didn't work for me.

Simpson is very knowledgeable about his subject (a plus) but I think he should have more faith in his readers to pick up and follow the various threads of his tale: an example of him not doing this is where he over-emphasised the Templar insignia (two horsemen on one steed) as though he didn't believe his readers would remember it.

I understand that Simpson has a great deal of information to impart, but on occasion he falls into long periods of exposition - paragraph after paragraph of rather dense historical facts that are not even presented in the form of dialogue. I think that he needs to look at his methods of providing background information, and improve these in the future.

I accept that Simpson probably feels as though The Da Vinci Code rather glamorised the Holy Grail without using true facts, but I did find it distasteful that he expressed his dissatisfaction at this by using his characters to make pointed digs at the book: " 'Hi Theo -' a long pause - 'you're in Glastonbury! How is your book on the Grail progressing? The subject is hot now, isn't it? That absurd Da Vinci Code book engaging excessive publicity.' "

I was disappointed at the depiction of the characters. None of them stood out as being particularly memorable, and Simpson was unable to use their dialogue as a way of identifying them. In fact, the dialogue was both stilted: " 'Let's face it, we're here because of the lush attractions of the location. Can we agree on the real facts as we know them?' " and lacking emotion: " 'What is the trouble, darling?' He replied, 'You! I love you, you see.' "

All of the information about the Templars and the locations within Switzerland are well-researched, but at points Simpson's lack of research and knowledge is very evident. My particular example here is concerning the Official Secrets Act - the characters signed the Official Secrets Act, and then were deemed to be covered from the moment of the signature being completed, whereas in actual fact the information on the form would need to be investigated and then clearance provided. The background of your family has to be checked as well as your own activities (I have signed the Official Secrets Act, y'see?) Not only this, but, having signed the Official Secrets Act, Nicholas and Charlotte seem to blab about the situation to all and sundry.

The final point I wish to make (although I do have other minor complaints about the novel) is the pacing. Simpson builds up nicely through the middle of the novel with scenes of genuine tension to what you imagine will be an explosive finale, but then the main characters end up on a slow city tour of Jerusalem where Simpson indulges himself in showing his knowledge about the culture, religion and locations of this holy place. This sort of interruption does not help the flow of the novel.

As you can see, although I felt that there was a decent novel hidden within the pages of Dark Knights of the Soul, I didn't enjoy Jeremy Simpson's writing, and certainly do not feel that it is any better than the Da Vinci Code. It was poorly-written and ineffective.