Amberlough

This reminded me a lot of Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box series, with more violence and less tongue-in-cheek humour. I agree with a lot of previous reviewers that it kind of starts in the middle of a conversation none of us were having - the writer casually drops names and places with no explanation or introduction. This would have been less of a problem if it took place in our own world, but it is set in a fictional city with elements drawn from New York or London in the 1920s and 30s. Think Bright Young Things gone spy thriller. It took me a couple of chapters to feel familiar enough with the setting to be interested and then I really got attached to Aristide and Cyril in a way that made the ending a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation. Now I eagerly await the sequel.

Amberlough is a spy thriller that takes place in an eponymous fantasy nation, which largely takes its aesthetic from early twentieth century Europe (if steampunk is based on Victorian England, maybe we could call this Belle Epunque?). It features a spy named Cyril, his lover, jazzy burlesque dancers, and the rising spectre of a fascist party that could threaten everything they hold dear. Amberlough was a fabulous, fantastic read that felt chilling and topical, with three-dimensional characters that weren't afraid to show you their ugly side.