Hammers on Bone (Persons Non Grata, #1)

Nice. Very nice. Well, it's Eldrich Horror kind of nice :-DSam Spade in modern time with a... hm... how to put it... something extra. Definitely noir.Interesting twist there. And makes me want more. I didn't think [b:Nothing But Blackened Teeth 53195923 Nothing But Blackened Teeth Cassandra Khaw https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1610469240l/53195923.SY75.jpg 80287448] would be something for me, but right now it feels like something exactly for me :-DCassandra Khaw has got a new fan.

4 stars I think. As in “I think I enjoyed this.” but I can't be totally sure. I was confused yet intrigued through most of the book but I do love the way it's written.

“Human anatomy surrenders to the pragmatism of combat. Muscles unbraid, sinews lengthen, even as veins become garrote and bones blade. In minutes, we're viscera commanded by will, flayed tissue, tendon, and teeth.”

I'm mean, what a way to write a book! It's Lovecraftian body horror mixed with film noir. So strange and yet so interesting.

John Persons is a PI who gets hired by someone to kill their stepfather. That someone is a ten year old child. The stepfather is a monster...but as it turns out so is Persons.

I am not well versed in Lovecraftian horror. I know what it is but I'm no expert on the genre as I've only read a book or two here and there. This book fits that bill. Now here's where I am unsure of how I feel fully about this book....Lovecraftian horror, set in the early 2000s with a PI who speaks like he's a noir character straight of the 40s and he's the only one. That being said the story IS a good one albeit short. Roughly 100 pages. And Khaw seems to have the ability to pack a lot into a short story and have it all flow well.

A wonderful cross of noir and Cthulhu Mythos storytelling that never feels like parody.

Meh, this didn't really work for me. The pacing was inconsistent, the tone was grating (I just imagined the author sitting there with a thesaurus of 20s slang, it was so forced) and the plot went nowhere, and was boring every step of the way. I know it was trying to evoke a noir + Lovecraft thing, which I really expected to like, but I just couldn't connect with any part of it.

The premise for this novella pretty much presses a lot of my interest buttons: Lovecraftian horror and hardboiled detective fiction against a London backdrop? Definitely in my wheelhouse. Unfortunately, the story is pretty bare bones - I feel like the narrative could have been a good twenty or thirty pages longer and I wouldn't have minded the length at all. Hopefully the sequel will keep this in mind.