Summary
Here’s a murder mystery culminating in conspiracy. It’s always like that isn’t it?
Written by
| Carrie Patel in 2015 |
The city of Recoletta is like any great imagining of Victorian London. Steam trains, shitty class based social system ruled by elites, gas lights and horses. Except there’s one big difference. The whole city is buried inside a series of tunnels.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle of Recoletta’s mass of animal, humanity and bad ventilation, Inspector Malone and her new rookie partner begin investigating the murder of a historian, in the rich part of town. Because of the way the murder happened, and the fact that no valuables were stolen, Malone thinks it’s the first sign of a conspiracy.
She’s not wrong.
Soon, her investigation leads her towards other murders, and a laundress called Jane Lin plus her journalist friend Anders. Together, they try to solve the mystery of why nobles are being offed, and just what the mysterious Roman Arnault has to do with it?
The Buried Life is an entertaining enough book, one where the mystery leads you quite quickly to realise the story will continue on in sequels. Which is fine, because once you dig beneath the surface (hehe, see what I did there?), there ought to be quite a rich backstory, which will hopefully be filled out as time goes on.
The characters themselves are your typical sci-fi fantasy police fare, with your bland future-cop, the everyday person called upon to do extraordinary things, a mysteriously handsome stranger and the nasty people who are all clamouring for power. There’s nothing at all to fault this aspect of the book, apart from the ‘I’ve seen it all before’ thing.
As The Buried Life moves towards its conclusion, which is quite dramatic by the way, you feel life you want more. Well, I did anyway. The reason is that the ending might be dramatic, but there are far too many loose ends that need to be tied up. So here’s to the sequel!
Rating
A pretty typical detective mystery type story, expect it mostly takes place underground.
Read this if you…
Enjoy a bit of Victorian style police drama.
Skip this if you…
Don’t like wading knee deep in sewers.
Typed by McMoron 