Book Review: The Con Artist – Fred Van Lente

Goodreads synopsis:

Comic book illustrator Michael Yoo is having a terrible week. He’s just arrived in San Diego for Comic-Con — the annual nerd Mardi Gras that triples the beachside city’s population with 150,000 fans. Michael hopes to spend the next five days working his booth in Artist’s Alley, where he’ll sign autographs and sell sketches for $40 a pop. Instead he’s implicated in the death of his editor, the widely feared and reviled Danny Lieber. There are plenty of suspects onhand — from rival illustrators to burlesque cos-players. But the most valuable clues might be hidden in Michael’s own sketchbook. He’s spent a good portion of the convention illustrating people he’s met and places he’s visited, and he’s inadvertantly captured some very important information. The devil is in the details, and readers who pay careful attention to this book’s black-and-white sketches will be on the right trail to unmask the murderer.  

I’ll start with my overall impression of this book which was…mixed. It took a while for me to get into the story because so much of the opening was focused on making recognisable references for comic book fans or convention fans, as well as setting up the backdrop of a convention centre that made me feel like I was deep into someone’s Tumblr rather than reading a murder-mystery novel. Once the story actually started and Michael (the protagonist) started to work towards solving the murder of his ex-colleague(s), I began to properly enjoy reading the novel.

Michael, a comic book artist past his prime, arrives at Comic Con in San Diego and very quickly becomes a suspect in his editor’s murder and has to navigate police investigations, comic book politics and his relationship with his ex-wife and her former boyfriends/his former colleagues.

The novel’s use of comic book references and it’s celebration of geek-dom sometimes seems a bit cringey as it builds and builds without much addition to the story, but can be appreciated at times. Since I went to see Deadpool 2 last week, I can sort of liken it to the references and meta style of that – sometimes gratuitous, sometimes enjoyable. Unsurprisingly, Wade also makes a couple of appearances in this novel too! One part that really sticks out is Michael’s speech to the crowd at an awards show during the convention about celebrating the works of artists while they are producing them, not just retrospectively. Fred Van Lente is a comic book author himself and so it isn’t surprising that the novel would present a viewpoint that I would expect that he himself would support, it isn’t something that I expected to find in a humorous Comic Con themed murder mystery novel although it is worth considering – creative artists SHOULD have more rights to their work than is often granted to them and they should not have to struggle to make ends meet.

Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of comic book and ‘geek’ culture, it has a well meaning message in the midst of a dramatic story and sometimes silly antics. You can find The Con Artist on BookDepository.com here, it is released 10th July 2018.

A copy of this book was given to my by the publisher by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Caraval – Stephanie Garber

 

Caraval was the first book that I have finished this year and I’m really glad I did because I enjoyed it soooo much. I picked it up last weekend in Manchester and finished it in a few train rides and then one last jump when I couldn’t put it down one night. It looks and reads like something that will be enjoyed by fans of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus (which is pretty much anyone that’s picked it up) and although I don’t want to mention it too much in my review, I think that confused me a little bit. It feels so familiar even though the mystery surrounding the circus/caraval is completely different, at points I thought I had already read it and had to put it down to make sure.

The story centres around Scarlett as she attends the Caraval at the Master Legend’s invitation after years of writing to him for her sister, Tella. Tella uses the Caraval as an opportunity to escape their abusive father and Scarlett follows (sort of) to the island with Julian, a sailor that agreed to transport them in exchange for Scarlett’s mysterious fiancé’s ticket. Once they get to the island, the mysteries and games begin for Scarlett.

I think that Stephanie Garber’s use of magical realism and an indistinct time/place for her story is what makes it a great fantasy story for both readers of fantasy and of more general fiction. Sometimes it can be difficult to get into or follow a story with a similar kind of setting but Garber’s world is perfect for a casual fantasy/magical world reader. That isn’t to say that this world isn’t fleshed out, there are hints of a bigger story behind Caraval. Their father’s political position and the state of the island that they live on being one of the least powerful suggests that in the future, he will be a factor in whatever is to come. I didn’t know that this was the start of a series, or at least a duology as the sequel comes out in May 2018. The story is engaging and well-paced as it really needs to be with a mystery like this that could get lost in details or dead ends as Scarlett tries to solve the mystery and win the game in order to get home in time for her wedding.

I don’t want to include any spoilers for the story as I think that part of what I enjoyed about reading it was that I stayed away from reviews or wikipedia summaries of the novel and the pace and mystery kept me guessing until the end of the novel. Whether it is the mystery of the caravel itself, Julian’s motives for helping the sisters, where Donatella has disappeared to or who Scarlett’s fiancé really is, Stephanie Garber’s debut is a gripping read that I would thoroughly recommend to anyone.

You can find Caraval on BookDepository.com here using my Affiliate link. OR, you can find the next in the series which will be released 29th May 2018, Legendary, here.