Glass Town

October 16, 2017
English author Savile (Moonlands) sets this clichéd and grating urban fantasy in a barely recognizable 1994 London. After the death of Josh Raines’s grandfather, the aimless Josh finds out that the old man spent most of his life obsessed with a woman named Eleanor, who disappeared in 1924. Despite 70 years having passed, Josh recognizes Eleanor on the street, as young as when she vanished, identifiable from having appeared for a few minutes in a lost Hitchcock silent movie. Unfortunately for both Eleanor and the reader, her disappearance has to do with an estranged branch of Josh’s family, specifically his grandfather’s brother, Seth, a two-dimensional mobster and murderous sociopath who took Eleanor and a part of London itself with him out of time and space. Seth is evil for the sake of being evil, Josh has no actual characterization, and Eleanor serves mainly as an unattainable ideal off in the distance. Lacking strong leads, the novel is forced to rely on its sense of place, which is so poorly wielded that London could be replaced with Chicago by changing the names of the streets and the mobsters. The lost Hitchcock movie is by far the most intriguing element of the book, but Savile mostly ignores it. This effort is a poor introduction of Savile to a U.S. audience.

November 15, 2017

At the funeral of his beloved grandfather, Josh Raines meets a man who introduces himself as his cousin Seth Lockwood. The Raines and the Lockwoods have a century of bad blood behind them, but Seth wants to bury the hatchet. The root of the enmity is a love triangle almost a century old. In the 1920s, Josh's great-grandfather Isaiah Lockwood, and his brother Seth both loved Eleanor Raines, a beautiful young actress. But when Eleanor rejected Seth's advances, he turned to a dark magic to steal her from this world. With the help of a stage magician who found a way to hide a slice of the world out of sync with our time line, Seth kept Eleanor imprisoned for decades. But now the walls of this "glass town" are collapsing, so Seth leaves his pocket world and steps into Josh's present, determined to repair Eleanor's prison and rejoin her there. Only Josh stands in his way. The prolific British author who writes for such popular franchises as Doctor Who makes an astoundingly inventive U.S. debut. VERDICT With a vivid London setting and a tantalizing dose of cinematic history (including Alfred Hitchcock's lost directorial debut), this dark fantasy should appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman.--MM

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2017
As he prepares for his grandfather's funeral, Joshua Raines discovers a letter from his great-grandfather Isaiah detailing a mystery almost 100 years old. In 1924, Isaiah loved a promising young actress. But she disappeared without a trace, along with a local crime boss, Seth Lockwood, who had been obsessed with her. Isaiah had spent the rest of his life attempting to unravel the mystery of what might have happened. Among the revelations of the letter comes the shocking information that Joshua's family name was not truly Raines; it was LockwoodSeth and Isaiah had been brothers. Then the Lockwoods show up at the funeral, and Joshua begins to suspect that there is more to this old family feud than a simple love triangleand his newly discovered cousin might be not quite what he appears. Joshua is then thrust onto a path of discovery that is full of danger, obsession, and even true magic. Perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere or Clive Barker, Savile's highly original story is an extremely engaging, fast-paced read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)