Review: City of Shadows by Declan Finn
Tommy Nolan does some interfaith outreach across The Pond
At the end of Infernal Affairs, our hero Thomas Nolan had been sent packing for Rome courtesy of the NYPD’s foreign intelligence office after his battle with the warlock / mayor tore half a suburb apart. He’s shipped off to Rome, and Rome ships him off the London. There, the weather has turned unnaturally nasty (even by English standards), a brazen and violent museum heist has seen an ancient artifact stolen, the city’s Muslim population is being whipped into a violent frenzy thanks to a charismatic and zealous imam and even the shadows themselves seem ready to strike.
The Story
Given that this book begins a new arc in the series, it’s suitable that City of Shadows is a different kind of ride than past entries in the Saint Tommy NYPD books. it’s a slower burn than the far more chaotic Infernal Affairs, and moves along much more like a mystery novel (don’t worry, there’s still plenty of action).
Before Nolan has even landed in London, the smell of evil is so overwhelming he has to pray for God to turn the ability off. Once off the plane, the sky is unnaturally cloudy and dark at all times, even in midday, and the shadows seem impenetrably dark wherever he looks.
His liaison is the chipper priest Father Pearson, who happens to be an exorcist (and not just any old exorcist, a “combat exorcist”), who has got more to his past than he initially lets on. Wasting no time, the two hop a cab over to the British Museum, where they come across one hell of a crime scene. Scorch marks, rubble and broken glass lay strewn all about, leading right out the front door. Security footage shows a group of armed Middle Eastern men attempting to steal a large gem known as the Soul Stone, which annihilates the first guy who lays hands on it. Thanks to London’s status as a gun-free zone, the thieves eventually do manage to pilfer the thing and make it out without being bothered by much return fire from the police.
The gem is said to be a precious ancient artifact rumored to have been reclaimed from Saddam Hussein’s personal torture chamber. According to legend, Anubis brought it up from the Underworld and gifted it to the Pharos, giving them vast supernatural powers, among them the ability to control light and dark and the weather. The gem is said to feed off of human angst and misery, so naturally in a major metropolitan city, it’s brimming with power. Nolan can hardly begin piecing together a timeline before jihadists show up, not only throwing bottles of acid but also flying and shooting lightning out of their hands (‘jihadi X-men’, as Nolan calls them).
However, the deck is truly stacked against Nolan this time; he’s not only up against the cultural cowardice of London politicians (which includes their police happy to stick their heads in the sand while Muslim rioters go unpunished out of fear of being labeled something-phobic), angry extremist Muslims out to claim the fatwa on his head, the unrelenting pummeling of battering winds, rain and darkness that assail him whenever he’s outside, and of course the actual, live carnivorous demonic shadows that lie in wait for him everywhere.
Refreshingly, this entry has an almost Cthulhuian flavor to it (the Elder Gods even get a passing mention early on in a conversation Nolan has with a bishop). The story has a constant, slowly tightening dread that builds throughout.
After the volcanic finale of the previous entry, Finn shows he can master the more taught, skillful pace of the crime thriller as well as the white-knuckled action he’s famous for.
The Characters
Tommy Nolan needs no introduction at this point, but here’s one if you need it. Newly introduced are the aforementioned Father Pearson, whose mysterious past turns out to have made him a surprisingly effective combatant in both the spiritual and physical senses, and whose friendly demeanor makes him an unassuming threat. He doesn’t even blink when Nolan levitates, manages to bareknuckle his way out of a scrap or two, and is a capable native guide to help aide to the perpetually besieged Nolan.
Imam Kozbar is the firebrand leader of the local mosque to which the museum thieves belonged. He’s a rather rude host to Nolan and Pearson when they stop by for questioning, and is the first one to get in front of a TV camera to hold a press conference to crow about imagined incursions to his civil rights. Of course, he’s naturally up to far more than acid-to-the-face interfaith outreach. He sees London, and by extension the West in general as decadent and weak and wishes to use the power of the Soul Stone to raze it to the ground, even if it means allying himself, at least temporarily, with …
Lord Newby Fowler and Lady Poly Toynbee, museum partners who are perhaps my only sticking point in this book in terms of character development. Compared to some of Finn’s far better written characters like this book’s Father Pearson, Alex Packard from the previous books and personal guilty favorite Bokor Baracus, Toynbee and Fowler come across as over the top in their personifications of any given edition of The Guardian’s opinion pages. They’re social elites who view religion only as useful for controlling others and who see it as their duty to use their vast amounts of wealth to attempt to reengineer society in their own perverse image (and by perverse, I mean Plato’s idea of age of consent perverse). They’re convinced the Soul Stone is actually an alien artifact, since demons can’t be even considered, and have taken to feeding the metaphorical alligators in aligning themselves with the Kozbar’s jihadists in hoping to usher in a grand new age of civilization by destroying everything that civilized it in the first place.
To be fair, even Nolan acknowledges their stupidity, and the good Imam seems to spend the book barely tolerating them for as long as is necessary. Thankfully, they weren’t too much of a distraction from all the cool firefights and explosions, so no harm done, and your personally mileage may vary.
The World
Modern day London, the perfect laboratory for the self-immolating cultural effects of untrammeled liberalism. The police are ineffectual and neutered if not outright hostile at those actually attempting to make society safer. Roving gangs of middle eastern thugs harass and assault in broad daylight knowing the local politicians will protect them. Criminal operations go unreported despite being an open secret. It’s a powderkeg ever on the verge of exploding, needing only that one thing to spark it off.
Of course, as I mentioned before, in addition to this, the ancient city is literally covered in darkness; Finn clearly has fun describing the dreary overcast skies and the unnervingly long shadows in what should seem like benign places. Even settings that should be safe, such as his hotel room, simmer with some malignant aura of unease as Tommy contemplates his surroundings, feeling at every moment that something is just … off.
Evil benign is a difficult thing to pull off, requiring masterful subtlety, and it’s a welcome change of pace here.
The Politics
It wouldn’t be a Saint Tommy book without firmly planting a flag in some political hill. Finn’s targets this time are. naturally enough, radical Islam and the damage political correctness does to harvest the poisonous fruits of its ideology, especially as it applies to Britain and Europe at large. Something tells me Finn’s not a popular guy in Rotherham.
Why Read It?
It’s a Saint Tommy novel with a fresh shift in pace and tone, going for a (somewhat) slower burn and full of brooding atmosphere and danger around every corner. Plus there’s a stinger in the end that will make you eager for the next stop on Tommy’s European tour, Crusader.