4 of 5 stars
When crime skulks the poorest streets, it’s up to an unlikely hero to bring light to the darkness. But there’s more to this story than just cops and robbers, and there are shadows upon shadows in the darkest corners of the city.
When a notorious crime lord’s lawyer is beheaded by hired killers, it’s clear someone’s sending a message. But Stavros Kefali didn’t get to be top dog by scaring easily, so he sends his go-to guy, Darren Flaxstone, to learn who’s behind it.
A pair of gritty detectives, Slade and Slaughter, are also on the case, and one of them has a secret source for street info: Lightning Girl, a vigilante fighting crime her way in the city’s poorest neighborhood.
Meanwhile, reporter Rebecca Hutchcraft is determined to unmask Lightning Girl, while rival gangster Harrison Marley thinks this might be the time to take on Kefali’s organization.
Hovering over all this is the upcoming Festival, Kefali’s super-secret once-in-a-lifetime event for the city’s elite, where all questions may be answered…if anyone survives to ask them.
Alex Bledsoe is the author of the Tufa and Eddie LaCrosse series of novels, as well as a few others. I’ve read both of the above series and enjoyed them, so when I saw this one, published earlier this year, I grabbed it.
And it doesn’t disappoint. It’s a mash-up of superheroes and mythology in a modern day big city environment. The plot is twisty in spots, with large bits of gray in the divisions between the good guys and the bad guys. There is an overarching mystery surrounding the Festival being put on by the biggest and richest of the gangsters, Stavros Kefali, a Howard Hughes-esque figure who is a bit of a mystery in himself. There’s a good bit of action, as you would expect in a superhero story, but there’s some character-driven plotlines, as well. The Festival details unfold slowly, but at a steady enough pace that the clues start to add up, but not so quickly that it’s all figured out before the end. And the threads that pull the main characters together are strongly enough woven that the conclusion makes sense.
While the City Never Sleeps is another of Bledsoe’s books that was quite enjoyable to read. Action, interesting characters, superheroes, a bit of music, and a modern interpretation of Greek mythology put this one right in my wheelhouse. Definitely recommended.
And So On... 