Fetch Philips has nothing left to believe in. Which is why he’s surprised when the people of Sunder City start to believe in him…
Rumour has it that Fetch is only one who can bring magic back into the world. So when a man is murdered in a way that can only be explained as magical, Fetch is brought in on the case. A case which just might unearth things best left buried…
Blurb for Luke Arnold’s Dead Man in a Ditch
When I read The Last Smile in Sunder City earlier this year1, I had hopes that it was going to be the beginning of an exciting new urban fantasy series for me to dive into. But if I’m honest, a lot of those hopes were riding on the sequel.
Last Smile did a lot of things right, but it also played a lot of things by the book. It built a fascinating, unique setting, but it used a lot of well-established noir tropes for building blocks. For the Fetch Phillips archives to grow, the series really had to lean into its originality in its sequels.
Thankfully, Luke Arnold did exactly that with Dead Man in a Ditch. I devoured this book. Honestly. Took me maybe three sittings over two days, interrupted only by sleep and food. It takes everything from the first book, including that wonderfully familiar noir voice, and uses it to build a world you can get lost in.
I liked Last Smile, don’t get me wrong, but I liked Dead Man in a Ditch a lot more. We get to see more of how this world has suffered following the loss of magic. We get to see Fetch confront his past in a way that exists in the present — rather than through flashbacks — and so the story flows so much more smoothly as a result. New and old characters take to the stage, all imbued with life and gripes and personality. And there’s magic.
But how is there magic, following the Coda? When it’s supposed to be dead?
Well, that’s for Fetch to find out.
Dead Man in a Ditch touches on a lot of big questions and hot topics, and I appreciated that while Arnold explored them, he never really tried to answer them. Sunder City’s first pistol has appeared. Industrialisation is coming to a city that sorely needs progress, but with it comes capitalism and industrial monopolies. And Fetch is in the middle of it all.
We see a lot more character development from Fetch this time around. If Last Smile spent a lot of time looking backwards, then Dead Man in a Ditch does the opposite. It shoots forward like a bullet, taking Fetch with it, whether he wants to or not. How he reacts to emotional turbulence of his ever-changing world is fascinating and engaging, and while I’d maybe have appreciated a bit more depth, there was enough there to keep me satisfied.
This is a quick-paced story that feeds you more information and more excitement as you read. I had a lot of fun with it, but there were some aspects that might turn some readers off.
As is typical for a lot of noir stories, there is quite a bit of male gaze. And for a cast with so much moral ambiguity, the only characters who are really presented as being genuinely well-meaning are the police force. Which is a common enough narrative device, I guess, but one that maybe earns a wince in 2020. The topic of firearms is one that I understand some readers will want to avoid, but in my opinion their introduction does make sense in the context of the world, and is handled with an appropriate level of respect.
But all things considered, I have to say that I really enjoyed Dead Man in a Ditch. It felt like it really kicked the Fetch Phillips series into high gear, and I’m buzzing to see what comes next. I’ll say it again: this is a world to get lost in. If you’re a fan of noir, detective-y urban fantasy, or dystopian settings… I highly recommend that you dive in.
1 — I know. The Last Smile in Sunder City came out this year. What even is time?
We received a paperback copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you to Orbit Books for the review copy!
