The Flesh King by Richard Kadrey

Book Review

Sarah Deeming

Something stalks the streets of New York, and all that remains of its victims are their bones and gristle. The police are stumped, which means there is only one explanation: the culprit is supernatural, so there is only one group of people anyone can turn to for help.

Neuland, Ford and Tilda, the Discreet Eliminators, have recently returned to New York, hoping to salvage their reputation. If they can find and destroy this mystery monster attacking New York’s citizens, then the gangs will welcome them back with open arms, and work will start flowing their way. However, there is more to this case than just an evil entity killing people, and perhaps the real target isn’t the monster but the Eliminators themselves.

The Flesh King is the second novella in The Discreet Eliminators series, which began with The Pale House and follows investigators and assassins Ford and Neuland as they train their new teammate, Tilda, in New York’s supernatural criminal underworld. While The Pale House establishes their personalities, The Flesh King showcases Neuland and Ford in their natural habitat, mingling with their normal associates and doing what they do best. We learnt in the first book that Neuland is a revenant, a dead person who walks and talks like the living, but in the second, we discover how revenants blend into society at all levels, including the top levels of the crime gangs and have their own bars where they don’t have to hide their otherness.

As before, we have Neuland’s, Ford’s, and Tilda’s POV as well as the antagonists, which gives the reader a greater understanding of the dangers the main characters face. We also gain a greater understanding of the characters’ relationship with one another, because The Flesh King uses a combination of action and character to drive the story forward.

The book is novella-sized and packs a lot in, so the plot moves at a fast pace, with the characters sometimes transitioning from one event to another with little rest in between. However, this works due to the nature of the story and the timeframe forced on the main characters to complete their elimination.

Slipping back into The Discreet Eliminators world was easy, comfortable, and a natural progression from the previous story. Blending the gritty pulp detective genre with supernatural elements works well and promises to create a unique universe that promises to grow bigger and more dangerous with every new instalment.