Peter Darbyshire

Peter Roman returns to the fantastical exploits of Cross, a desolate immortal trapped in the undying body left behind by Jesus Christ. The Dead Hamlets finds the former thief/current angel-slayer unwilling roped into detective work for the Faerie Queen, looking for a killer with supernatural ties to the work of William Shakespeare. Like the first, Roman heedlessly mangles history in the funhouse mirror of his mind, all to suit his twisted purpose; playwright Christopher Marlowe is an undead show more demon hunter, Alice (the Wonderland one) is a playfully warped trickster, Shakespeare himself is a supernatural force…you get the general idea. It’s all glorious fun, a blasphemously good time, a sacrelicious treat. The adventures of Cross could easily continue for years; here’s hoping they’re all as much fun.

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Part of the great frustration (and the appeal) of The Warhol Gang is that a description of the plot is practically impossible with, well, giving the entirety of the plot away. Darbyshire twists and warps reality to suit his own needs, and as Trotsky descends into a new level of madness that may or may not be real, not a page goes by without the addition of another puzzle piece to his scattered psyche. The miracle is that none of this feels forced; considering its manic narrative structure, show more Darbyshire keeps a firm hand on his tale, with nary a scene wasted.

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Something is haunting the play Hamlet, every time faeries put up the show someone dies...for real! It's up to the immortal Cross; a rogue and a drunk to stop the curse.

This was one hell of a ride! I enjoyed this story very much. Cross has to stop this curse or else his daughter Amelia could be the next victim of the curse, and he also has to fight a personal curse put on him by the fairy queen Morgana that makes him love her. To find out how to stop the curse he has to get help from quite show more different "people" like Christopher Marlowe, Alice (from the Alice in the Wonderland books), Frankenstein (the monsters actually not the doctor, but it's his name) The Scholar and so on...

I loved the story, the characters, the cameos of known fictional and not fictional characters. It was a great book that I recommend warmly!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! show less

Peter Darbyshire is a Canadian journalist and editor, with a sheaf of books to his credit. This October, Wolsak & Wynn presents a new edition of Darbyshire’s wild ride, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, first released in 2013 by ChiZine Publications under Darbyshire’s pseudonym, Peter Roman. The Mona Lisa Sacrifice is the first book of the Book of the Cross series.

The marketing blurb:

Meet Cross. He’s lived for thousands of years, hungering for grace – but not the grace you’re thinking of. show more This grace only comes from killing angels.

What unfolds in this wry, often witty, always irreverent odyssey of revenge is a re-imagining of the Jesus mythology, with a global pantheon of gods, demi-gods, folkloric figures, demons, angels and creatures. It is a breathless race through eras, peccadillos, mysteries and morally questionable moments that is a salad of DC/Marvel comics meets Homer. Darbyshire chooses a first person, unreliable narrator in the form of the main character, Cross, who, in this modern era, gets by in life by lifting credit cards and living rare and hedonistically until his need of further grifting and vampiric siphoning of angelic grace drive him onward toward his goal of finding Judas and finally, utterly, destroying him.

As with any story of this scope of the fantastic, there are huge gaps in credibility, but for the most part these can be forgiven because of the nature of the epic. For myself, I found the characters predictable, some of the plot points beyond plausible, and the story arc repetitious. But that’s me, and certainly my taste is in the minority when you consider the enormous critical praise Darbyshire has received from the likes of The National Post, and Quill & Quire.

If you enjoy irreverent, supernatural thrillers, I suggest you pre-order your copy of The Mona Lisa Sacrifice. show less