FFB - Two angels!

Plenty of books have ‘angel’ in their title. Here are two, quite different novels.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

This is a prequel to the Mortal Instruments Series (City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass and City of Fallen Angels). Although aimed at the Young Adult readership, most adults will enjoy it.

When Tessa Gray arrives from America in Victorian London (1878) in search of her brother Nate, she is abducted by the sinister Dark sisters. Tessa’s ordeal is prolonged – some six weeks – and painful as the sisters bring out hidden powers Tessa never knew she possessed: she’s able to transform into another person.

Unfortunately for Tessa, the sisters are preparing her for their master, the Magister, who wants Tessa for his own nefarious ends which might involve the overthrow of the British Empire no less.

Circumstances thrust Tessa into the hands of brave and reckless Will and the mysterious Jem, who are Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons – demons like vampires and werewolves.

This is a very well written atmospheric novel with fascinating characters you learn to care about. The descriptions of the mysterious Institute and the clockwork soldiers of the Magister are superb. A diminutive but deadly Charlotte and her inventor husband Henry run the Institute, one of many hidden in the shadow world where normal humans – mundanes – cannot perceive them. As Henry says of his wife, ‘You are as terrifying as you are wonderful, my dear.’

Despite many dark moments, there’s also plenty of humour:

            ‘I intend to marry Agatha,’ said Will. ‘She may be a thousand years old, but she makes an incomparable jam tart. Beauty fades, but cooking is eternal.’

I liked Clare’s apt use of Horace’s line, ‘Pulvis et umbra sumus’ (We are shadows and dust) – which was memorably quoted by Oliver Reed in Gladiator. Indeed, Clare has done her homework – each chapter features a contemporary poetry quotation – and the images conjured up of Victorian London are believable, in all their stink and squalor. Clockwork Angel is far superior to many a so-called adult fantasy novels available. The next in this new series, the Infernal Devices, is Clockwork Prince. (Not to be confused with the equally excellent Mortal Engines series, including the book Infernal Devices, by Philip Reeve).

Nobody’s Angel by Jack Clark

Eddie Miles is a Chicago cabbie and he earns his fares amidst a jungle of crime-ridden housing projects, crumbling and abandoned industrial centres and neighbourhoods laid waste and never reclaimed. For good reason, cabbies try to stay clear of the south and east parts of the Windy City. 

There are no chapters as such, but each section is marked by quotes from the municipal code regarding cabs and their passengers.  We are taken along on Eddie’s nightly journeys and share his heartbreak and nostalgia for the lost City he still loves.  Life in the cab seems to be a constant battle.  Every passenger is evaluated and diagnosed as a threat, a safe fare or a sucker that will pay steep for Eddie’s services.  But now the stakes are even higher than ever as a number of Chicago’s cabbies have been murdered by a serial killer. Eddie’s closest friend soon falls victim.

One night Eddie makes a wrong turn into a deserted alley to relieve himself and stumbles upon a serial killer in a van dumping the body of a 16-year-old prostitute.   

 
Despite the murder and mayhem, the bulk of the novel concerns Eddie’s nightly routine with rude and gracious fares, his wisecracking interactions with his fellow cabbies, and ruminations on his personal life, which is in meltdown.  Despite this, the story is never slow. Clark’s style is clipped, ironic and fascinating and his cabbie character is totally believable.

There’s a tendency to turn the pages quickly, sometimes in dread mixed with delight, just to see who is going to get in Eddie’s cab next. Funny or weird? Drunk or deadly? Before long, you know it’s probably not going to be good.

 
Some scenes threaten to be heart-breaking, while others are amusing. Life is light and shade. This could be a cabbie’s Heart of Darkness for, be forewarned, in these pages you’re entering the world of noir. In true noir, the darkness does not always herald a dawn...

Jack Clark is actually a Chicago cabbie – and it shoes in the novel. He wrote this book in his spare time and even self-published 500 copies (in 1996) and then sold them for $5 each to passengers and fellow cabbies. It took off but its readership was limited mostly to Chicago. Clark approached the owner of Hard Case Crime and it was taken on and has been very well received. Apparently, Jack still drives a cab. 

Boxing Day

If anyone had told me a year ago that I’d be writing a story about boxing, I’d have thought they were punch drunk. Still, I was asked to contribute to an anthology of boxing stories and have written a boxing tale set in Chicago that should appear in the Fight Card series early in the new year. I was inspired by reading this book by Terrence McCauley, writing as Jack Tunney (a house name for the Fight Card series, inspired by Paul Bishop and Mel Odom).

AGAINST THE ROPES

 

New York, 1925. Terry Quinn is another orphan protégé of Father Frawley from the Gym at St. Vincent’s, Chicago. He’s close to the big fight against Jack Dempsey. Just two more fights, maybe… Genet was tough, but he managed. Next in line was Whitowski, a big bull of a contender. And the Tammany boys wanted Quinn to take a dive, let Whitowski win. A lot of money was riding on that. No way. Trouble was, ‘no way’ meant ‘no exit’ for Terry and his trainer, Augie…

The Tammany boys included Corcoran and Doyle: ‘If Manhattan was an island surrounded on all sides by an ocean of dirty money, Fatty Corcoran was Moses, able to part the dirty waters and make them go any way he wanted.’ Whereas Doyle ‘had a growing bootleg booze operation that almost took in half the city… Doyle was tougher than he looked and he looked plenty tough already.’

This short novel provides all of the atmosphere, the ambiance and the thrills of the 1920s. Combine that with the stupidity of Prohibition, the rackets and the fight game and this becomes a bout of heart-pounding excitement where the audience is rooting for the good guy Quinn, yet realising that the odds are severely stacked against him. The dialogue is as sharp as a toothpick, as foreboding as the next incoming storm of punches, and full of character. By the end, I was punch-drunk, the fight sequences were so gruelling and realistic. Great stuff. You can get it here

McCauley is a writer to watch. He can certainly capture the period. You might want to try his 1930s style novel Prohibition, also.

PROHIBITION

The year is 1930 and New York is a city on the edge. The Roaring '20s ended with the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression is only beginning. Banks are failing. Companies are closing their doors. Breadlines grow longer by the day. The only market making money is the black market: racketeering, rum running, and speakeasies. But when even those vices begin to weaken, the most powerful gangster on the Eastern Sea-board, Archie Doyle, sees the writing on the wall. He launches a bold scheme that, if successful, will secure his empire’s future beyond Prohibition. Beyond even the Great Depression.

But when a mysterious rival attempts to kill Doyle’s right hand man, a dangerous turf war begins to brew. With his empire under attack, Doyle turns to his best gun, former boxer Terry Quinn, for answers. Quinn must use his brains as well as his brawn to uncover who is behind the violence and why before Doyle’s empire comes crashing down.

Terrence McCauley whips up a fast paced pulp thriller ripe with Tommy-gun blasting hoods, corrupt cops and deadly dames in this original novel reminiscent of the classic gangster movies of old. Brilliantly illustrated by Rob Moran with designs by Rob Davis, PROHIBITION is a tough-guy blow to the literary gut readers will not soon forget. You can get this here

 

Maxwell cleverly weaves her tale

JANE – The woman who loved Tarzan

by Robin Maxwell

This book’s release, authorised by the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, coincided with the centenary of the publication of Tarzan of the Apes. It’s a fitting re-invention.

            Many years ago, I read and re-read all two dozen of the Tarzan books and also the John Carter series. Like fans worldwide, I’ve always felt that the films never did Lord Greystoke justice. So, it was with a little trepidation that I tackled this book.
            What many film-makers neglected but this novel recognizes, ‘There is no Tarzan without Jane’, to quote John R Burroughs. As I became immersed in the tale, all fears for the treatment of the lord of the jungle evaporated. It was obvious that this was a work of love and respect for the original, a worthy homage.
            The book begins in 1912 Chicago where Jane Porter is giving a talk about the missing link she found in Africa. Her claims cause heated controversy among several academic and scientific attendees and, ultimately, a Mr E.R. Burroughs, a young author, takes her aside and expresses an interest in her tale about an ape man. Sequestered together, Jane tells all to Burroughs. This is Jane’s first person narrative we’re about to read, beginning in 1905.
            Maxwell cleverly weaves her tale, using the basic elements of the original but grafting on much that is new and intriguing. Seeing this tale from Jane’s perspective works exceedingly well for me. The period and character are beautifully captured – perhaps I should have expected nothing less from an accredited author of historical fiction.
            There is much that is familiar – the story of Tarzan’s origin, though shifted by date for purposes of realism, the Waziri, d’Arnot, Jane’s father, and the Mangani. The vain and dashing explorer Ral Conrath makes a suitable bad guy, but the real villain is Kerchak, the killer ape. Yet they’re given slight twists to fit this retelling; to stick to the original in every respect would have been a creative straitjacket and unworthy, and fortunately both Jim Sullos, custodian of the legend, and grandson John R Burroughs agreed. In his works, Burroughs did a lot of research for his books, and Maxwell has emulated him with a sure touch, delving into the paleo-anthropological details, the descriptions of the Dark Continent and even the history of Cambridge University, yet at no times imposing swathes of mind-numbing information on the reader.
            There are several poignant moments – not least the reading of Alice’s diary, the vaguely recalled past of young Tarzan and the erotic yet tasteful relationship between the ape man and his mate, Jane.
            You don’t have to have read any Tarzan book to appreciate this wonderful novel. If you have read some of the ape man’s adventures, then you’ll find much to please you in this retelling, bringing the lord of the jungle back to an adult readership, Burroughs’ intended audience.