A fascinating tightrope

As usual with Miéville, is the city which is the main hero of the novel (it probably remind you of New Crobuzon, some other fantastic city in the excellent and monumental trilogy "Perdido Street Station" / "The Scar" / "Iron Council" the same author).

Everything begins as a classic thriller: the corpse of a dead girl who could have been a prostitute (or not) was found on a rubbish heap in the street. The survey shows that it has been transported in a van that may have been stolen (or not). Once the van found, it is full of garbage without any plausible reason for that. The inspector ECS (Extreme Crime Squad) investigates, he follows the autopsy, seeking evidence, interview witnesses and suspects ... In short, it is a classic thriller, but placed in a city weird.

The investigation will lead our inspector in political extremist circles and among all revolutionaries of the city before driving to a hidden conspiracy and particularly explosives and hidden secrets for a long time, which will be unveiled with enormous repercussions.

This imaginary city is a strange setting, even unlikely, and we need all the talent balancing and Miéville storyteller for such scaffolding hold firmly standing throughout the novel. Such a slippery subject would probably escaped from the hands of more than one author less talented than Miéville. But there it securely holds the strings of his story, he firmly holds its exotic setting and makes it seem almost normal, and it is an almost classic thriller with overtones of political thriller, though sympathy for the revolutionary minorities Miéville and / or underground of the city is more limited here than in New Crobuzon. This is a thriller that begins as an investigation of murder and is almost normally develops during part of the novel before its ramifications and implications in a little fantasy setting of the town becomes apparent.

In short, a new fascinating oddity of Miéville, which for me remains always interesting atypical author and follow closely.