"Full Dark City" is a solid, standard crime investigation story in its opening chapters. Jack is a detective, his partner Roscoe is used to him zoning out at crime scenes as he tries to envision what went down, and Kate Riley is the dead prosecutor that they have to put to rest.
Unfortunately for Jack, Kate was also his former lover.
The prose sticks to the facts, like a good cop should. The details are all there, stark and realistic. The narration is a little old-fashioned—Jack "shows" us what he sees very well, but "tells" us about expository details from the past. However, it works for the genre, a hard-boiled detective giving quick factual summations to bring the case up to speed and concentrate on the here and now.
My only problem with this solid, well-written story is that it doesn’t seem to be doing anything original that Raymond Chandler and Sam Spade didn’t accomplish fifty or sixty years ago. I can hear Bogey narrating, but when he talks about pinging cell phones suddenly the whole story gets a little dull, because Bogey’s dead.
If you miss the old-school detective novels, this could be for you. If you’re looking for a new twist, or something unique, I haven’t come across that yet but it’s solid enough so maybe there’s hope.
3 of 3 members found this review helpful.
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