The Last Smile in Sunder City

by Luke Arnold

Overview

A former soldier turned PI tries to help the fantasy creatures whose lives he ruined in a world that's lost its magic in a compelling debut fantasy by Black Sails actor Luke Arnold.

Welcome to Sunder City. The magic is gone but the monsters remain.

I'm Fetch Phillips, just like it says on the window. There are a few things you should know before you hire me:

1. Sobriety costs extra.
2. My services are confidential.
3. I don't work for humans.

It's nothing personal—I'm human myself. But after what happened, to the magic, it's not the humans who need my help.

Walk the streets of Sunder City and meet Fetch, his magical clients, and a darkly imagined world perfect for readers of Ben Aaronovitch and Jim Butcher.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316455824
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	02/25/2020
Series:	Fetch Phillips Archives Series , #1
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	412,649
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Luke Arnold was born in Australia and has spent the last decade acting his way around the world, playing iconic roles such as Long John Silver in the Emmy-winning Black Sails and his award-winning turn as Michael Hutchence in the INXS mini-series Never Tear Us Apart. When he isn't performing, Luke is a screenwriter, director, novelist, and ambassador forSave the Children Australia. The Last Smile in Sunder City is his debut novel.

Editorial Reviews

★ 12/02/2019

Actor Arnold, best-known for his role in the TV series Black Sails, invites readers into a richly imagined world in this standout debut. In the wake of a cataclysmic war, mystical beings have been stripped of their powers and their magical technologies frozen, leading to mass bankruptcy among gremlins, goblins, elves, and others, and lingering tensions between humans and nonhumans. Human Fetch Phillips, self-described “Man for Hire,” lives in Sunder City, a metropolis that began as “one giant factory,” before an enlightened dwarf governor allied with a human aristocrat to raise taxes and introduce arts and culture into the community. When Edmund Rye, a centuries-old vampire and one of the teachers at an academy for magical children, disappears, the academy’s principal hires Phillips to find him. Phillips hits the mean streets of Sunder City in search of Rye only to realize that he’s on the trail of something far more complicated. Winningly combining the grit of Chinatown with the quirky charm of Harry Potter, this series opener is sure to have readers coming back for more. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"A marvelous noir voice; Arnold has captured the spirit of the genre perfectly and wrapped it around a fantasy setting with consummate skill."— Peter McLean, author of Priest of Bones

"[T]he focus on meticulous worldbuilding and highly detailed backstory as well as the cast of fully developed and memorable characters are unarguable strengths....The first installment of an effortlessly readable series that could be the illegitimate love child of Terry Pratchett and Dashiell Hammett."— Kirkus

"A richly imagined world...Winningly combining the grit of Chinatown with the quirky charm of Harry Potter, this series opener is sure to have readers coming back for more."— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This off-piste detective story set in a magical world, now in meltdown, has verve and charm in abundance and a rough diamond hero with quite a story to tell."— Andrew Caldecott, author of Rotherweird

From the Publisher

01/31/2020

[DEBUT] Fetch Phillips, private investigator, lives during the Coda: Magic has left the world, and all magical creatures are dying as a result. The self-styled "man for hire" is a curmudgeon with deep disdain for his fellow humans, who drinks to forget all the terrible things he has seen and done. Fetch's latest job is a routine search for a missing person that may have broader implications for the magical denizens of Sunder City. Arnold's worldbuilding holds great promise, but his characters could use better development. Fetch is a stereotypical hardboiled detective built from well-worn tropes. Overuse of flashbacks to fill in the backstory results in more telling than showing. VERDICT Similar to Marshall Ryan Maresca's "Maradaine" novels, which show the seedy side of a fantasy city, this debut should drawn in fans of noir fantasy.—Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib.

Library Journal

2019-11-24
The debut novel from Australian actor Arnold is a fusion of paranormal fantasy and mystery set in a world where magic has been effectively destroyed by humans, forcing the supernatural population to live a radically diminished existence.

Fetch Phillips is a "Man for Hire," which is another way of saying the down-on-his-luck, hard-drinking former Soldier-turned-detective will do just about anything to pay the bills. When a principal from a cross-species school enlists him to find a missing professor—a 300-year-old Vampire named Edmund Rye—Phillips quickly agrees. Without magic, the Vampires—and all other supernatural beings—are slowly dying. So how difficult could it be to find a withered bloodsucker who is so weak he can hardly move around? After visiting Rye's last residence—a secluded loft space in the local library filled with the Vampire's research and writings—Phillips discovers that one of Rye's students is missing as well: a young Siren named January. His investigation becomes complicated when more Vampires turn up dead and he is almost killed himself. While the mystery element of the storyline is a bit thin, the focus on meticulous worldbuilding and highly detailed backstory as well as the cast of fully developed and memorable characters (Simms, the reptilian cop; Peteris, the disfigured half-werewolf; etc.) are unarguable strengths. But the real power here is in Arnold's use of imagery throughout. His unconventional descriptive style brings a richness and depth to the narrative. Pete's smile is "like a handbag with a broken zipper," and the sound of Phillips' falling from a building is "like someone stepping on an egg full of snails."

The first installment of an effortlessly readable series that could be the illegitimate love child of Terry Pratchett and Dashiell Hammett.

Kirkus Reviews

Read More