Review by Booklist Review
Master thief and con man Gideon Sable has a plan. He intends to breach the private vault of Fredric Hammer, noted bad guy, and rob him blind. To do that, he needs to assemble a crack team of professionals. But this is no ordinary team, because this is no ordinary London. This is an alternate London, wherein ghosts and demons and people with special gifts coexist with regular human folk. And Gideon's team consists of former girlfriend Annie Anybody, whose gift is luck; a fellow known as the Damned (because he's, you know, damned); the Ghost, who retains the memory of what it is to be a man; and the Wild Card, who sees all the truths in the world. Each of them has a score to settle with Hammer, and each of them is willing to risk plenty to get revenge. This novel by the author of the terrific Ishmael Jones series is a treat for anyone who relishes the blending of alternate-world fantasy, urban fantasy, and the caper novel. Exciting, witty, and stuffed full of fun.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Green (the Ishmael Jones series) gives an urban fantasy twist to Oceans 11 in this lackluster heist story. Londoner Gideon Sable specializes in stealing what can't be stolen--like a ghost's clothes, or a man's luck--from people he feels deserve it. He sets his sights on "the worst man in the world," Fredric Hammer, when Hammer's ex-wife hires him to steal Hammer's time television, a device capable of showing any moment from the past. To pull it off, Gideon must assemble a crack crew, including Annie Anybody, a femme fatale who magically makes machines fall in love with her; The Damned, an Underground-dwelling angel-killer; The Ghost, a spectral art forger; and Johnny Wilde, a Mad Hatter--esque drug inventor whose antics quickly grow irritating. Each of them wants revenge on Hammer for his crimes and eagerly join Gideon's mission. Despite the clever worldbuilding of Green's alternate London, the narrative is buried under a hoarder-level collection of noir and urban fantasy clichés, including a dated insistence on defining all the female characters by their relationships to men, and the result unintentionally reads like self-parody. This is only for the most devoted of Green's fans. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
