Poison City by Paul Crilley

The name’s Gideon Tau, but everyone just calls me London. I work for the Delphic Division, the occult investigative unit of the South African Police Service. My life revolves around two things – finding out who killed my daughter and imagining what I’m going to do to the bastard when I catch him.

I have two friends. The first is my boss, Armitage, a fifty-something DCI from Yorkshire who looks more like someone’s mother than a cop. Don’t let that fool you. The second is the dog, my magical spirit guide. He talks, he watches TV all day, and he’s a mean drunk.

Poison-City-by-Paul-Crilley-Crop

Naming a book after a strain of marijuana takes a serious set of stones! (or should I say stoners?)

Set in Durban, a grubby jewel on the East Coast of South Africa, Poison City is one the best urban fantasy novels I have read in ages! It joins a small yet growing pool of weird novels set in South Africa that are muscling in on the global fantasy stage.
Paul Crilley is obviously a fan of the city as he writes about it so well and only a person that has lived there can capture the atmosphere so accurately – he is a brilliant writer (even if he is a bit of a doos about Cape Town).

Look I am not sure why I am even trying to review this dirty, beautiful bastard of a book, when stars like Krysten Ritter give out such amazing quotes:
ritter poison city
Like many people I am a fan of Dog – Gideon Tau’s alcoholic, foul mouthed spirit guide “You forgot the sherry, dipshit” – seriously what is not to like?

By the way if you want to experience what the dog enjoys you can actually buy Sedgwick’s Old Brown sherry (sorry – fortified wine over here due to EU protected designation of origin status laws) at many of the fine South African stores around the UK. It is the perfect tipple for enjoying while you read!

Gideon is a tragic, seriously messed-up individual, with a gift for magic that may kill him if his self-destructive urges do not get that job done first but he has the misfortune to be a man who needs to do the right thing even if it is not necessarily a good thing!

Poison City is a fantasy crime novel soaked in the daily grind of South African life that can be a frustration for many as well as incorporating the mythology of Africa and beyond!

Seriously mythology, magic tattoos, monstrous angels, corruption and a threat of a war to wipe out humanity – there is something in this book for almost everyone!

Perfect for fans of Mike Carey, Lauren Beukes and Charlie Human!

poison city

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