The Year of the Knife by G.D. Penman
Series: Witch of Empire #1
Published by Meerkat Press on 2017 October 31
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 270
Format: E-book
Source: Purchased
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Agent -Sully- Sullivan is one of the top cops in the Imperial Bureau of Investigation. A veteran witch of the British Empire who isn't afraid to use her magical skills to crack a case. But Sully might need more than a good education and raw power to stop the string of grisly murders that have been springing up across the American Colonies. Every one of them marked by the same chilling calling card, a warning in the form of a legion of voices screaming out through the killers' mouths: -It IS tHe YEAr oF the KNife.-
Sully's investigation will drag her away from the comforts of home in New Amsterdam, the beautiful but useless hyacinth macaw that used to be her boss, and the loving arms of her undead girlfriend, in a thrilling race against time, demonic forces and a shadowy conspiracy that will do anything to keep its hold on power and ensure that Sully takes their secrets to her grave, as soon as possible.
G.D. Penman's imaginative The Year of the Knife is a fun, fast-paced urban fantasy mystery with an engaging set of characters, most notably Agent Sully of the Imperial Bureau of Investigation.
This review has long been overdue, my bad. I requested the Year of the Knife’s ARC from Netgalley around 2017 and then, life happened. I had an oversight, forgot to download it, and yup, affected my Netgalley review rating. As an OCD, it irks me that I have pending ARCs and the math is not mathing. Heh. So here I am, writing this review. Yep, I have to buy the e-book in order to read the book.
Fortunately, despite the obscurity of Year of the Knife, I found it entertaining. I was already hooked as early as the first page with the author immediately introducing us to our lesbian heroine, Sully Sullivan. The story did not dilly dally as I was instantly given a glimpse of how badass our Sully is when she killed one of the suspected killers in the first chapter.
Well, let me backtrack first. Sully Sullivan, our heroine, is a Polish immigrant in the British Empire and also, a powerful witch. She’s one of the high ranking officials of the Imperial Bureau of Investigations. Set in an alternative universe where New York City (called in this book as New Amsterdam) is still part of the British colonies, the story follows Sully’s adventures as she tries to solve a series of murder cases happening in the American colonies. The only clue that she has to work with was that all victims and suspected killers are all saying one thing: “It is the Year of the Knife.”
The Year of the Knife is a relatively short book which proved to be both an advantage and a disadvantage to the whole story. I would say that it’s advantageous because it was fast-paced, straightforward, no boring moments while delivering its commitment. I was promised with a badass, no-nonsense heroine and G.D. Penman has delivered it with a flourish. I was promised with a thrilling plot and G.D. Penman delivered it. The ending was also satisfying and I think our characters deserved such sliver of light afterall that’s happened. By these things alone, the story has already made a happy reader out of me.
On the downside, however, since the book was short (as per my standard), some elements of the story were compromised. For one, the world building was somewhat insufficient, and I had to reread some parts of the story just to make sense of the timeline and to grasp the whole magic system. I don’t know if my age is already catching up with me but rereading things to understand what the world is all about in a story makes me feel like I’m dumb. ☹ I appreciate the creativity of G.D. Penman for creating a parallel universe but since it’s not explained so well, I have to go back to the earlier pages just to get the hang of things. The era was not also fully discussed which baffled me because they have phones and e-mails but the whole vibe of the story feels like it happened in the Victorian era something.
Anyhow, if I have to weigh things between this and that, I’d say that this book is a win for me. Despite its shortcomings, I really looked forward to reading every succeeding page of the story. I was also invested with the remarkable characters involved. The romance between Sully and Marie was realistic and the friendly banter between our heroine and other characters was fun and unforgettable. So will I read the two subsequent installment? Nothing definite yet but most likely. To cut this review short, go and add this book in your reading shelf.