Oh, how I love a genre mash-up! Premee Mohamed blends fantasy with thriller in Wickhills, delivering a gripping story full of chases, disappearances, fights, and corruption. I wish more authors were doing what Mohamed and Robert Jackson Bennett are doing to spice up the fantasy genre. Throwing in elements from other genres into the possibilities of a fantasy world does a lot to generate lively, original stories that I devour when I get my hands on them. Right, enough gushing.
Ferec is a man with a certain set of skills, skills he has developed over a long career working for Seabourne. Seabourne’s primary mission is to thwart any group that might threaten Wickhill’s relatively stable government. The job Ferec is on when we meet him, however, is very much off the books. His boss has sent him to retrieve a man who has defected from a neighboring city from the cargo ship that snuck him in. While Ferec and his partner are able to get the man (a hilariously whiny scientist) off the ship, the job immediately goes sideways when they are ambushed by unknown forces. Ferec’s partner is killed and the scientist’s MacGuffin device is lost.
Because Ferec and his boss are working a private job, they have none of their usual resources to lean on. Only Ferec’s deep knowledge of the city and extensive network of unofficial informers and resources can save them. This means that not only do we get a great thriller, we also get to explore an utterly unique fantasy city. Neighborhoods can appear and disappear from maps without notice. There’s an entire undercity with its own king, separate from the city above ground. Wickhills has layers of history in its stones and Ferec is a delightful guide as he drops trivia about street names and customs, even as he tries to keep the scientist and his very small group of allies from getting killed and works out who the hell is trying to kill them.
Even though Mohamed embeds a MacGuffin at the center of her plot, there are real stakes. Characters get killed. There is collateral damage to the city. This, along with the incredible depth Mohamed gives to the city of Wickhills, makes for an engrossing read. Bookish folks who are looking for fresh fantasy that’s unlike the rest of the genre should give Wickhills a look.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.