Anthony Neil Smith is a fine writer. I’m a fan, as you’ll know from
previous reviews. The thing that I’ve come to expect from him is the
unexpected. He doesn’t do things by halves and he likes to take you on wild
journeys with great plots and mightily written characters. Castle Danger, a novel with gender on the agenda, is his
latest and I found myself in even more unpredictable territory than ever as the
chapters flew by.
The plot twists and turns more than most. Those changes are crucial to
the drive of the story and I don’t want to spoil that by hinting at what’s
going on. Suffice to say that nothing is what it seems and no one is quite who
they appear to be when you first meet them.
To help me explain, here’s what the blurb says:
‘When a dead woman is fished out of Lake Superior, Manny Jahnke is there to
discover the baffling truth: The "woman" in the ice is biologically a
man. Before he can learn more, the corpse sinks back into the water, pulling
Manny's partner along with it. Both disappear under the ice, never to be seen
again. Now Manny has a missing victim, a new partner he likes even less than
the old one, and a case no one wants solved. Or so it seems. Manny grows
obsessed with the "woman on ice" whose secrets prove to be as vast as
the Great Lake itself - and whose enemies turn out to be powerful enough to
keep those secrets hidden. Only one thing is certain: if Manny survives, he'll
never be the same man again.’
Manny’s living in a kind of hell. He lost his
girlfriend after an accident and he’s picked up some bad habits. He’s also
questioning who he is and what he wants to be in the future.
He gets partnered with Joel, an ex Marine and a new cop
with no experience of police work whatsoever. They’re an odd couple. They share
little in common and don’t particularly like each other. The only thing in
their favour is that they’re both desperate and that they have each other’s
backs. It’s a good job, too, because just about the whole world is against
them.
They set about investigating the woman on ice case and
land themselves in a total mess where their colleagues block their way, there
are political restraints and they end up feeling like the villains of the
piece.
It’s a multi-tracked roller coaster. Explosive.
Elusive. Funny. Frightening. And twisted.
I’ve seen mention that this book is less bloody and
extreme than some of Smith’s others. That may be the case, but there’s still
plenty of violence for those who seek it out and the exploration of Manny and
Joel plumbs depths that are dark and uncomfortable and are pretty darned challenging
if you ask me.
What I enjoyed most about the story were the technique
and the voice of Manny. The story is smashed into pieces and restructured in an
order that allows tension and curiosity to build. Manny’s slick telling of
events bridges the switches between time and place. It’s playful and direct and
points out the tricks of the narrative just as the lights go on in a reader’s
head (or at least in mine). I enjoyed the fact that I was being toyed with and
was happy to go with the flow.
If that doesn’t tempt you, then there’s a final bonus
at the end of the book. ANS gives an interview that reflects on aspects of the
work.
In short, this one’s different. Different for Smith and
probably different to most everybody else.
