Part detective drama and part urban fantasy – or maybe rural fantasy, as much of it is set in the quiet Lincolnshire landscape – Adam Simcox’s The Dying Squad is fun, easy to read and full to the brim with big ideas. He doesn’t want to admit it, despite having seen his own bullet-ridden body, but DI Joe Lazarus is dead. When he finally accepts the truth, Joe finds himself in the Pen – essentially purgatory – where he’s given the task of heading back to the mortal plane to investigate his own murder. With the cheeky, also-dead Daisy-May as his partner he sets out on the trail of the drug gang he was tracking before his death, but it’s hard being an undead detective when, beyond a core awareness of who he was, he can barely remember anything about his life or the people in it. At least he can walk through walls though, and Daisy-May seems to know what she’s doing in this strange afterlife.
After a slightly slow start full of existential angst as Joe rails against the truth of his situation, he’s rapidly introduced to the Pen, the Dispossessed souls caught there between heaven and hell, the Duchess who rules as the Warden of the Pen, and the existence of the Dying Squad – souls tasked with finding justice for those whose crimes went unsolved in the living world. There’s a lot to take in, but the story kicks into gear as Joe learns the terms of the deal he’s being offered – secure a place in heaven by finding out who’s responsible for his murder, or else be forever trapped in the Pen – and makes a start on his investigation. The absence of memories for both Joe and Daisy-May, what that means for their sense of identity and how they mitigate against it, quickly becomes a fundamental driver of the plot, keeping the reader guessing and gradually revealing the truths behind both characters. As the rules of the setting (i.e. how this sort of afterlife works, and how it fits in with heaven and hell) become clearer too, the danger ramps up and the stakes become bigger than just a case of Joe getting into heaven.
The core concept is a brilliant idea, and there’s a lot here that’s wonderfully imaginative and great fun to read about. Perhaps because there are so many ideas flying around though, it does at times feel like a book that isn’t entirely sure what it wants to be – is it a supernatural police procedural? An expansive modern fantasy? A noirish character study? In truth it’s all of those things in a combination that largely works, but not flawlessly; the actual investigation is a touch one-dimensional, at least some of the twists and revelations are a bit telegraphed, and with all the (admittedly smart and frequently intriguing) world building going on a couple of the character beats towards the end feel a bit rushed. Thankfully, the relationship between Joe and Daisy-May is easily strong enough to carry the story along, and it’s as much fun reading their zingy, witty dialogue as it is learning more about who they are – and were – even as they’re rediscovering their memories and past lives themselves.
So if the tone is a bit uneven in places and the crime/fantasy elements don’t always feel like they fit together properly, there’s still more than enough going on here for it to be consistently entertaining, and as the story progresses the whole thing gradually begins to gel a bit more. By the end, while it’s clear that Simcox is setting things up nicely for a sequel, it’s easy to forgive him that – with most of the mysteries out of the way and the characters fully realised, the journey up to that point now makes a lot of sense, and for the most part feels genuinely satisfying. It’s definitely more fantasy than crime, but the central idea of the Pen and the Dying Squad is smart and well thought-out, with considerable scope for further development. If you’re on the lookout for a modern urban (/rural) fantasy with a fun angle on the afterlife – and a dash of crime added in – then you could do a lot worse than check this out.
Many thanks to Gollancz and Adam Simcox for providing me with an advance copy of The Dying Squad, in exchange for my honest review.
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