Review: Dead Man In A Ditch is a groundbreaking work of fantasy noir

Every once in a while, a book comes along that pushes the boundaries of the fantasy genre. Check out our review of Dead Man In A Ditch by Luke Arnold.

While he might be best known for his role as Long John Silver on the Starz pirate drama Black Sails, Luke Arnold proved last year that he could also write a damn good book. His debut novel, The Last Smile In Sunder City, follows Man for Hire Fetch Phillips after he’s contracted to find a missing vampire faculty member who worked at the first co-species school for magical beings. Sunder City is inhabited by both humans and mythical beings trying to work out their issues in a world where magic has suddenly evaporated and left many of the old guard worse for wear.

The Last Smile is a compelling urban fantasy mystery, combining a gritty locale in the vein of Sin City with the fantasy races and trappings more typical of stories like The Lord of the Rings or The Witcher. And it’s awesome.

But while The Last Smile is an excellent read, Arnold’s newest offering is an improvement in just about every way. It’s almost hard to capture just how much bigger and better Dead Man In A Ditch is than its predecessor. The only thing I can even think to compare it to is the leap between Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and the highly acclaimed The Dark Knight. 

Compared to The Last Smile, the story of Dead Man is both larger in scope and more deeply personal for hero Fetch Phillips. After solving the mystery of the missing vampire in The Last Smile, Fetch has gained a reputation as the man who’s ‘trying to bring the magic back’ (despite his firm insistence otherwise). The story begins with Fetch being brought in on an investigation into a murder that was seemingly committed with magic. Early on, the plot has many of the same mystery elements that made The Last Smile so much fun. But as the book nears its halfway point, it morphs into a new phase, and then another. Ghosts from Fetch’s past come back to haunt him. Deep societal and technological dilemmas crop up, and the conflict escalates to a near catastrophic level.

One of the coolest things about the world Arnold has created is all the different magical beings. There are elves and dwarves, dragons and werecats and unicorns. Goblins. Necromancers. Sprites. The list is practically endless, and Arnold does an amazing job of putting his own spin on each and every one of these creatures. By examining not only the origins of these fairy tale entities, but also how the sudden loss of magic has effected each race differently, he manages to to find new angles on some of the oldest fantasy tropes around.

The flip side of that coin is that it’s not just the magical beings who are trying to figure out how to adapt, but also the world itself. Sunder City is a metropolis built with magic as its foundation. Some of its apartment buildings have “Angel doors” — doorways that open into midair, commonly used by Sunder’s airborne denizens before they lost their ability to take to the sky. Its industry and street lamps were powered by the magical fire that once rumbled beneath the city. When the magic vanished, Sunder City was thrown into a technological vacuum, and Dead Man In A Ditch spends a lot of time exploring what that means.

It’s hard to talk about the technological struggles the book addresses without spoiling anything, and the twists and turns are so good it’d be a shame to reveal them early. Suffice it to say, you’d be hard-pressed to find another fantasy novel that so deftly navigates the personal and social ramifications of technological advancement. I certainly can’t think of any.

At the center of it all is Fetch Phillips, Man for Hire and usually the most cynical person in the room. Fetch is an incredibly likable character, but he doesn’t like himself very much and seldom lets the reader forget it. Ironically, this only makes him even more relatable. Fetch blames himself, personally, for many of his world’s issues, and whether that’s fair or not, he has such a colorful and intriguing past that you can’t help but be swept up by his story.

During his time on Black Sails, Arnold’s character Long John Silver was known for having an almost supernatural ability to sway people with his storytelling. With Dead Man In A Ditch, Arnold proves that this ability came as much from his own voice as the script. Dead Man In A Ditch is told in Fetch’s own words, and to listen to him tell his tale is just as mesmerizing as any magic that Long John Silver ever worked. In a genre that has no shortage of amazing writers, Arnold’s narrative gift sets him apart.

With any luck, this is only the beginning of a long writing career for Arnold, and a long story for Fetch Phillips.

Dead Man In A Ditch comes out online and in bookstores September 22.

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