‘Crime with a difference’ would perhaps be an appropriate genre classification for D.B. Shan’s second adult novel, Hell’s Horizon. What begins as a fairly standard (albeit noirish) whodunnit soon evolves into a strange beast of a book, suspended somewhere between crime, horror and fantasy. Like its predecessor, Procession of the Dead, it drops only subtle hints at first of its own supernatural undercurrents, preferring to focus on sketching the bleak and bloodstained setting on which the action thrives. When the magic does hit, it can seem a little incongruous, but it certainly transforms this witches’ brew into something intriguingly unique. The prequel is a must-read before attempting this latest instalment; anybody unfamiliar with the mechanics of Ayuamarcans will probably be left scratching their head and wanting their money back.

Shan’s writing is as brutal as it is atmospheric. He offers little relief from the violence of his story, focusing as usual on the decay of his protagonist. The scene with the Fursts – a particularly memorable moment – is delivered so swiftly that it takes several pages to fully sink in, at which point the reader cannot help but feel slightly sick. Bleak though it may be, it is an undeniably skilful blow. I certainly found myself glancing behind my chair a few times while reading at night; I’ll give Shan credit for that.

Nevertheless, like its predecessor, this book does suffer somewhat from being difficult to endure. Nobody will guess all of Shan’s plot twists, and that may be partly because his plot is wildly unpredictable – but it will also be partly because his readers are too benumbed to make any reasonable attempts. This instalment falls a step short of Procession in the engrossing, page-turning department, and the slower-paced moments leave plenty of time for noticing that the prose is not the best in the world. To make matters worse, Shan has arguably overstepped the mark when it comes to his most intriguing characters – The Cardinal and Paucar Wami – neatly shattering the reverent atmospheres that previously made them such powerful narrative lures.

At the very least, Hell’s Horizon is an exceptionally plotted whodunnit. The twists and turns are breathtakingly complex. But how to become desensitised to the violence without becoming desensitised to the whole lot? That’s a question for a hardier reader than myself. ( )

“Hell’s Horizons” follows Procession of the Dead in DB Shan’s The City trilogy and is infinately the more enjoyable book and superior story – a good portent for the final volume.

Book two deals with a different set of characters and works well as a stand alone: less surreal and existential than the first, we follow Al Jeery, favourite of the all powerful city crime boss known as the Cardinal, as he investigates a murder by the near mythical assassin Paucar Wami.

The Cardinal controls this great unnammed and unidentified city and Paucar wami is his lethal weapon, an enigmatic, shadowy and invincible killer. Al Jeery, a relative innocent, is irrevocably changed after interacting with these two entities.

A grand set of book for a wet weekend; if I can get through five titles in two days its no wonder the wintery Western Cape, with its less than perfect weather, is the reading captial of the country! ( )

The summary of this book is going to be very hard to understand if you haven't read the first book. You can read my review of Procession of the Dead for a fuller understanding of the story without any spoilers. This second book starts off with completely different characters within The Cardinal's Troops, his own personal police/security force. The plot runs parallel with the first novel with very few crossover's until the end. The theme centers around a vicious killing of a young woman and Al Jeery, Troop member, is personally assigned, by The Cardinal himself, to solve the case. The case becomes personal to Jeery as he finds loved ones crossing paths with his investigation. This book also delves deeper into the mysterious Incan group of blind men in white robes, has more of a mystical element to it and centers on the mysterious but feared and dreaded hitman/killer/torturer Paucar Wami first met in book one.

A quick-paced read that ultimately reads like a mystery thriller for 3/4s of the book. Second books in trilogies are always compared to the first as we have expectations set up for us and while I certainly do describe this as a dark, violent urban fantasy, I found this not as dark, not as mafioso, not as violent (but don't get me wrong it is plenty violent!). Comparisons aside, this was a fantastic read, the mystery angle really shocked me having read a lot of Shan's books I didn't expect that angle coming from him. It was very well done. The characters are just as eccentric, as expected, from the victim's cross-dressing rich brother to the octogenarian pimp who always knows the word on the street. Those characters make it sound seedy but it's not, I don't remember any s*x scenes at all!

I'm hardly doing the book justice as it is just such an intricate book and since it runs parallel with the first one there are crossovers which are infrequent to start off with but rush to a head at the end. Now that I have read the final words of book one and the final words of book two, I just can't wait for the two to meet up with each other in the final book, City of the Snakes, due Mar. 2010 in UK, which means a month or so later for me here in Canada. ( )

A fun properly dark supernatural thriller reommended for any crime/horror/dark fantasy fan.

Al is just a guard for the man who owns The City, The Cardinal, but then the boss starts to take an interest in his stagnant career and hauls him off to investigate a murder of a young woman. Soon he is up to his neck in a conspiracy involving the cities Incan forefathers, the Cardinal himself and most terrifying of all Paucar Waimi, the mythical assassin.

It’s the second in the city of dead trilogy and it takes place at the same time of the first book, procession of the Dead. This does mean it contains major spoilers for the 1st so I recommend reading the books in order! I also say this because whilst this book was good it’s not a patch on the first. Whilst the plot is a lot of fun and never boring it does start to become a bit predictable. The characters are well done, all suitably noirish (plus we get to revisit the wonderfully scary Waimi) and whilst I wasn't too keen on the end (stretching verisimilitude to breaking point) the resolution is wonderfully apt & dark.

So all in all go and read the amazing Procession of the Dead. If you enjoy that than you'll also enjoy this, I will be looking out for the third one myself. ( )