London Falling by Paul Cornell, London Falling #1The dark is rising . . . Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career. Then his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton.
But nothing about
Toshack’s murder is normal. Toshack had struck a bargain with a
vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one step ahead of
the law – until his luck ran out. Now, the team must find a 'suspect'
who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill
again. As the group starts to see London’s sinister magic for
themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities.
Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural force the only way they
know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics. But they must all
learn the rules of this new game - and quickly. More than their lives
will depend on it.
London Falling is the first book in
the London Falling series written by Paul Cornell set in an urban fantasy
inspired London. Paul Cornell is well known for his contributions to numerous Doctor
Who episodes and various other TV shows such as Primeval and Robin
Hood. Besides his work in the TV industry, Paul Cornell has also written
several books in the Doctor Who world. Like I mention in a lot of urban
fantasy reviews, this genre is just pretty awesome to read about, it is highly
versatile and every author seems to interpret it in their own way. I heard a
lot of positive new about London Falling, and I have to be honest I was
expecting a bit of different story, what I have come to read in the past months
have been on some parts dark murder investigative stories but they do have a
somewhat humorous side to it. London Falling is dark and gritty and with
the whole backdrop of organized and such just gets a lot sinister and
darker.
The
story start off with a heavy emphasis on how the police operates on a daily
basis and the world feels just as we are living in it. The London police
is about to apprehend an important drug lord after five years of hard work, but
it is still a precarious case. In these introducing chapters you are already
introduced to the four main characters of London Falling, they are all
police officers: Quill, Costain, Ross and Sefton, they all had a hand in trying
to bring the drug lord Rob Toshack to judgement. With letting the introduction
focus on the normal police procedures, Paul Cornell gently steers the reader
away from the proposed supernatural element that is mentioned in the synopsis,
if you just read the first chapter you wouldn't have guessed what would happen
AFTER Rob Toshack is captured. And to be honest even with the mentioning of the
supernatural you still won't have a clue as what will happen. Because that
scene in the interrogation room, brings you on one part to the edge of your
seat and on the other slams you awake like a door in the face. It's cool, it's
brutal, gory and bloody. Paul Cornell presents this scene on a silver platter
and really sets the mood for the remainder of the story. It's also by this
scene that the supernatural hidden within the story comes to firstly show it's
face.
But
with this first introduction of the supernatural the whole scene is far from
over. It marks just the beginning of all that is possible in this version of
London, as the four police investigator now find out that they themselves have
more power than they had thought. The four gain the Sight which allows them to
see what really hides among the masses of people in London, seeing witches on
street corners and the like. This was a very good addition to the storyline as
you have on one side the supernatural threat on the rise, one of which our investigators
can make heads nor tails from and on the other hand they themselves are
changing and not understanding the how, why and if’s of it. This combined added
another sense to the story that of discovery. Not only who and more importantly
what is behind the threat but also figuring out what they have become for
themselves. This whole transition regarding the characters themselves wasn’t
done in the spur of the moment but there is a nice way of how they embrace what
they have become. For me what made this part was that they were still sticking
to their drilled in police routines, and that they bit by bit started to think
outside the box.
All
four different characters: Quill, Costain, Ross and Sefton has their own roles
within the department and in the story itself and Paul Cornell wrote them all
with different characteristics. I have to say that some characters were just
more memorable than others, especially Quill and Ross stood out for me. Detective
Inspector James Quill put enough pressure behind the story to keep pushing the
investigation forward. Lisa Ross was a character that took a bit getting used
to but once you got the full background of her character it proved to be very
elegant in a certain way, her role as an intelligence analyst added a lot of
brains into the mix besides the grunting field police man. The was that her
background was handled was for me one of the better and this might be because
she is the only female lead in the story, that made her stood out, Quill,
Costain and Sefton are all male leads. Overall the character fitted nicely into
the story and there was enough elaboration about their roles and positions in
everything, they just could have been given a bit more dressing up to really
make them stand out amongst each other. This is just a minor remark though. Another
bit that took getting used was the quick switching of the points-of-view
between the characters, it felt that once you got into one characters
adventures it was over to soon and you were transported to another one, this
took some getting used to. But on the whole London
Falling is written in a solid stroke, despite the above mentioned remarks
Paul Cornell really knows what to include to create an interesting story and
moreover an solid entry within the urban fantasy genre.
London Falling is an
thrilling supernatural investigation that offers a new interpretation of urban
fantasy and murder investigation. If you think you have read all that urban
fantasy has to offer, think again. This book really focuses on the darkest
corners of London and Paul Cornell doesn’t spare you one moment to introduce
the horror and thriller aspects into his story creating a quite scary and
creepy story. What is still lingering in the back of my mind is the scene in
which you were first introduced to the murder that can bend time and space,
this creeped me out and all throughout London
Falling I was on the edge of my seat, with these kind of enemies you just
never known when and where it will strike again. Besides this threat, the
characters and the world were also just as terrific to read about, though the
characters could have used a little polish. I liked how they were introduced to
this threat and how they themselves grew into their new roles and powers. All in
all the characters did work in the backdrop of the story and considering this
is just the first volume of the series they are somewhat established and I will
be looking forward to see how they will manage in the sequel to come. The Severed Streets will be out in the
summer of 2014.