Low Town

Low Town (titled the Straight-Razor Cure in the UK), is the first instalment in the Low Town series, and is a noir detective mystery transplanted to a fantasy setting. The story is set amidst puke, piss, drugs and dead children, and follows a drug-dealer called 'the Warden', who samples from his own stash. Upon discovering a murdered child, with no-one else bothered to investigate, the Warden sets out to solve it himself, and is dragged through the trash of Low Town. The Warden is a typically gritty hard-boiled, disgraced lawman character, and would be just at home in Detroit, dealing heroin, as in Low Town, with pixie's breath. The setting is another grim highlight, so vile that you'll want a shower after reading. Polansky has nailed gritty realism with this one, and the characters aren't the over-powered heroes found in some fantasy novels, but shitty people doing their best. Or worst, in some cases. The pacing of Low Town is excellent, and it's as addictive as the drugs found within its pages.Read this book if:you want to read a noir thriller, but are bored by the stupid real world.