What do you get when you mix alien murder, dark world
building, a retro 70’s aesthetic and elements of magic and science fiction? If you are lucky, you will be reading
“Titanshade”, Dan Stout’s entertaining debut novel which combines politics,
murder, aliens, magic and a charging plot in a boomtown city on the edge of
catastrophe. It’s a mix of cop cars and dying magic, disco music and
necromancy. And a great portrait of a
cop who lives for the hunt and solving crimes.
Stout’s gritty hero is Carter, a homicide cop, who is always in trouble
with the brass, but finds the investigation of the murder of a Squib diplomat
has far reaching consequences for his city and the people who live there. Stout’s writing is spot on and the noir detective story with magic and
modern technology works really well.
The Squibs are an alien amphibian race who live and work in
Titanshade, a boomtown, which has been awash in a sea of greenbacks from the
discovery and oil drilling. But what
happens when the oil runs out. Cities
try to get a new investment and reinvent themselves. Titanshade is deep in
negotiations with a Squib delegation, who are interested in making a new
investment in Titanshade by turning the oil fields into wind farms, when one of
the members turns up dead in a sleazy hotel. This is not a novel for the
squeamish, as the victim seems to have been involved heavily with human and
other alien prostitutes.
Carter has been joined on the case by Ajax, a young
Mollenkampi, another alien race that made its home in Titanshade. As part of the investigation, Carter calls on
the services of DO Guyer, a magic user, who can, with the use of manna, examine the entrails of a dead
person or even call up the dead through a type of necromancy. Manna,
a magical substance used to power spells, that once was abundant in Titanshade,
is also disappearing from the city, making all magical spells much more
expensive. As a reader, unless you are in a world of total magic, the less
magic that is used in a world the more believable the world becomes. Magic is
like having a superhero run rampant through your story. So Stout’s limited use
of magic in the story increases the velocity of the cop elements of the story
by focusing it on investigation and not miraculous cures.
The Titanshade elites want the investigation wrapped up
quickly, but Carter will not be pushed into arresting the wrong perp. And there are a lot of crimes going on. An
entire family is murdered. Is it connected?
The elites want it to be. And
there are a lot of power players.
Ambassador Paulus, a leader, and prime magic user in the government and her assistant, the
diplomatic envoy Gellica, who has her own secrets, soon reveal themselves to be involved in some
way. Harlan Cedrow, the current head of
one of the old oil families, who has the most to lose from the oil field
devastation, and there is Flanagan, a disgraced ex-cop, who has fallen in
with a religious cult. Carter takes a
flame thrower approach, everyone who touches the investigation is burned.
Stout mixes all of the elements well and sets his bulldog
investigator to follow the clues to the killer. It’s a complex investigation,
but Carter is not going to walk away.
This is what we as readers want in a cop story set in an
alien landscape peopled with interesting characters and situations.
It is a find. Go discover it.
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