Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure: Low Town 1

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Warden is your typical bad-A with a heart of gold. His hard exterior comes from the way the system's treated him, his participation not only in the military, but in the police force, neither of which ending on the best of terms.

We get glimpses of his past, and they're good, probably more engaging than his investigation. Warden is a fascinating character who makes Low Town enjoyable. Unfortunately, the mystery isn't that strong by itself. Nor is the resolution. But Warden has a distinct voice that makes it all worthwhile (to me). Before I got into fantasy, I was a fan of hard-boiled crime and noir. I think Polansky hit all the right notes here, creating a memorable character (Warden), a memorable and gritty setting (Low Town), and a compelling plot. Quite brilliant...[ Low Town ] is as good a debut as I've read in along time. [It] has it all - and as the name suggests, it is sharp, steely and viciously bloody. Highly recommended." --John Berlyne, SF Revu Linking the Low Town on the Severn with the High Town and castle, the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway is believed to hold a few records. There were some flaws with this novel (use of stereotypes and a twist that was relatively easy to work out), but they were so inconsequential to me that barely warrant mention. I was that entertained whilst reading this!

Although the basic street layout of the Low Town still exists to this day, it can be difficult to imagine how the area appeared up to the early 1900s, and while those dark days of North Shields have long since disappeared, much of the area is virtually unrecognisable today, while a schedule of redevelopment and modernisation continues to progress. One of these is the redundant St Leonard’s Church, which is made from the local red sandstone and has stood here since the 12th century, integrating hidden stonework from much older Anglo-Saxon and Norman buildings.

This Elizabethan manor was built for the Cressett family between 1540 and 1580. They remained here for 200 years after which the hall became a farmhouse and went into a slow decline. Is the piece good or bad? Forget objectivity, taste plays too big of a role to determine the objective value of a piece. Instead, assessing a piece's goal is more valuable; every piece has a goal/intent no matter how small. These goals are often the promises made in a book's synopsis or movie's trailer, but other times a goal can be the successful conveyance of metaphor as well.

I also felt like there were a number of characters that didn't really do enough to justify how much space they took up, and consequently they were completely left out of the conclusion and left to dangle. Polansky hits all the right notes in his intelligent first novel, a blend of dystopian fantasy and hard-boiled crime....Sharp, noir-tinged dialogue and astute insights into class struggle mark Polansky as a writer with a future." -- Publishers Weekly Another problem is it's somewhat predictable...that's my take of course. I know that as the plot was being set up and the characters were being introduced as soon as we met the "villain" I said to myself....it's "this person". There is a great deal of dirt, grime, and gore in this book. A few scenes are incredibly vivid in the grotesquerie that they convey. A small snippet from an important scene.