Hell's Horizon

Written before Darren O'Shaughnessy became a bestselling young adult author as Darren Shan, this gory companion to June 2010's Procession of the Dead is a twisting, paranormal gangster mystery. Al "Algiers" Jeery works for the Cardinal, crime boss of the City. When Al's new girlfriend, Nic, is brutally murdered in one of the Cardinal's hotels, the boss asks Al to investigate. Al dutifully starts researching and quickly learns he knew nothing about Nic. Blind Incan priests, Nic's weird friends, and the terrifying assassin Paucar Wami conspire as Al's life unravels along with the mystery. Events occur in parallel to those of Procession of the Dead, but the stories are quite independent. Readers familiar with Shan's teen titles might need to exercise a bit of patience with the pacing, but fans of dark urban fantasy will eagerly look forward toward City of Snakes, the next installment. (Jan.)
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Shan’s second book about the City takes place during roughly the same time period as the first (Procession of the Dead, 2010) but features many new characters, only tying together events from both books at the very end of the story. Al Jeery is a dedicated soldier for the Cardinal and happy to do his job until the day he takes a body to the morgue only to discover it is his girlfriend. Asked by the Cardinal to investigate, Al takes on the duty, persevering through a complex and often seemingly impossible investigation. Like Procession of the Dead, this story takes place entirely within Shan’s fictional yet modern-day city, run by the Cardinal, but the plot is constructed in the fashion of a mainstream police procedural. With almost too many twists to believe, dozens of characters, and the complex mythology of the City itself, Hell’s Horizon is not an easy read, yet it may appeal to those who enjoyed China Miéville’s The City & the City. --Jessica Moyer