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The Last Smile in Sunder City (Fletch Phillips Archives 1), by Luke Arnold (2020)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A hard-boiled private investigator, haunted by his actions in a war that destroyed his world‘s magic, takes the case of a missing vampire.

Review: This was actor Luke Arnold‘s debut, and he set himself a big challenge, having to introduce us to a complex world in addition to his main character and the story itself. Cont.

Have just finished the first of my Litsyversary recs 😊 Thanks for suggesting Last Smile @Booksblanketsandahotbeverage 💕

It wasn't always my cup of tea, but I did enjoy it more as the story went on, and fans of urban fantasy with a noir feel will be entertained!

I didn't like the MC much, and I kept having to re-read large passages because I'd fall asleep and forget what had happened 😅

Still, easy to read and nicely noir.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars

🎧 Humans seem to be the cause that magic has disappeared.

Fetch is human & has fled his walled human city to live among nonhumans.

A very old vampire teacher is missing. Fetch is hired to find him. And this is how this dark gumshoe periodesque novel begins.

I enjoyed this book & already bought book 2. It‘s dark, gritty, noir, in the vein of The Grimnoir Chronicles. A nice change of pace. Good narration.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

That's my reaction to the German translation of the tagged book. I made it to page 8.

The book, an Urban Fantasy, might be good. Yet the German translation is abysmal. Right on page 1 the 'agony' of listening to someone babbling for ages is translated as 'Agonie', which in German means painful death throes (and nothing else). ⬇️

Yes, the author is the Australian actor, but I wasn't aware of it when I requested and started reading the ARC.

A mashup of fable fantasy, John Grisham detective/mystery, & some kind of western adventure. Gritty & dark with a flawed pseudohero protagonist. Fetch is appropriately flawed & conflicted. Fun world building and excellent characters. Some wandering and extraneous plot that made bits a little slow, but the writing is direct & descriptive without being flowery. An intriguing story & a fun read. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Didn‘t hate it, didn‘t love it. To me, Fetch came across as too generic, complete with a drinking problem, sordid past, and personal list of lines he won‘t cross. Lots of backstory and flashbacks to wade through, which made the book drag. Liked that there were lots of different creatures populating this world but otherwise it felt stale and recycled. First book and beginning of a new series, so who knows.

#urbanfantasy