Thursday, August 26, 2004

Hawk & Fisher

I heard about Simon Green's Hawk & Fisher from someone years ago, but I never got around reading the book until last night. It's a fantasy novel about two cops, Hawk and Fisher, who are husband and wife and who carry an axe (Hawk) and a sword (Fisher). They inhabit a fantasy world where magic works and where crime is rampant. This book is about a locked-room murder in the home of a powerful sorcerer. It's also a riff on Christie's Ten Little Indians, as that after the murder occurs, no one can enter or leave the house. And of course people keep dying. I'd like to say this is an undiscovered classic, but I can't. That would be wrong. The writing is undistinguished and in some cases downright irritating. (So many people were saying things "dryly" that I thought I was sitting in the Sahara.) The plot resolutions are, in my opinion, sort of a cheat, but you might think differently. If you've read it, let me know. I have another book in this series, but I'm not eager to read it.

2 comments:

James Reasoner said...

This is one of those series where I bought all of them before I had read any of them, and I regretted it when I read the first one. Not terrible, but not nearly good enough to prompt me to read the others. Having heard good comments on Green's Deathstalker series, I bought the first book in that series and a collection of short novels that serve as prequels to it. I started the first of the prequels and gave up after a chapter. I guess I'm just not a Simon Green fan.

Unknown said...

Well, you've probably saved me some money. I was thinking about trying the Deathstalker books, but now I probably won't. And I probably won't be buying any more of the Hawk & Fisher titles, either.