** I received an ARC for an honest review **
Publisher’s Description
Welcome to Dalton
Home to Humans, Dwarves, Elves and the shadowy Umbral Populace.
Detective Vanic Bradley works hard to keep the peace, coming down hard on the criminal underbelly of the city.
After putting his life on the line multiple times in recent weeks, all he wanted was a day off work to spend time with his son, and re-evaluate his place in the world – but forces beyond his control have other ideas.
For reasons unknown, he will find himself in a race against time as two hundred innocent citizens become collateral damage in a murderous plot centred around him.
Summary
This recent read was urban fantasy crime thriller Umbrate by UK author A.D Jones.
Umbrate is set in an alternate dark fantasy world where humanity lives alongside elves, dwarves and the umbrales. The former are accepted members of society but the tendancy for umbrals to be night-dwelling, associates them with criminality and for the police officer protagonist, Vanic, he is forced to confront his own prejudices while targeted by one malevolent umbrale turning the past into a reckoning in the present.
Review
Umbrate has a lot of good themes and world-building aspects that deserve celebration for their ingenuity. Several editing errors detracted from the flow of the storyline. The protagonist Vanic was unlikeable despite his enlightenment from his prejudices, this occurs too late in the plot and I struggled to find connection with this character. The use of fantasy races as proxies for real racial discrimination and tensions could have benefitted from more subtly. There was a sense of “othering” those who are different and associating them with malevolency.
It would be great to see Jones explore this alternate world through the perspective of the Umbrals too. The complexities of the alternate world were far-reaching and I would like to see Jones explore this particular world further. It was built cleverly to mimic our reality but with significant differences and the history and backstory of the present-day setting would be warranted.
Conclusion
Recommend read for fans of unique urban fantasy, paranormal and mystery themes. This is a fast-paced book and reads like a crime thriller but with the intricacies of a dark fantasy world. Well worth reading!
** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **
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