Saturday, August 19, 2006

News page updated on Euro Crime website & Kit Whitfield

I've added a few links for new reviews and an article on Margery Allingham to the 'news' section of Euro Crime.

One review caught my eye in particular. In The Telegraph, Susanna Yager reviews 'Bareback' by Kit Whitfield - set in a world where 99 per cent of the population are werewolves - concluding "Her intriguing story is narrated by Lola, a DORLA solicitor, whose investigation into the death of a colleague provides the vehicle for a provocative if not particularly subtle commentary on medical ethics, civil rights and the rule of law in a society whose survival relies on class discrimination."

Biology is destiny. For those born feet-first, life is normal. Civil rights are enshrined in law, the world is a comfortable place, and every full moon night, you lock yourself in a secure room to fur up in peace. But for those born head-first, the damage done is more than just physical. For a non, locked in his or her human skin, is first and foremost a conscript, drafted at eighteen into DORLA, the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity. For a DORLA agent, insultingly referred to as a 'bareback', full moon creates a battle zone, where they patrol the silent night in search of citizens breaking the curfew. The rest of the month is a civil service nightmare, mopping up the after-effects of the trespasses, the fights and the maulings. DORLA has lasted centuries, since the Inquisition first set it up, and it's no less hated now than it was then. Lola Galley, twenty-eight and already a scarred veteran, is assigned to defend a curfew-breaker who mutilated a good friend of hers. She doesn't want the case, but she's used to doing things she doesn't want. Only something happens: her maimed friend is murdered before her client can be tried. Lola wants justice. She'll settle for the truth. But in a divided world, asking for the truth may bring answers that you don't want to hear. (from amazon.co.uk)

Kit Whitfield's website, includes a blog and an answer as to why the US edition is called 'Benighted'.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Desperately seeking Allingham fans to help answer a library patron's question about The Beckoning Lady! Who/what/where is Glubalubali (add umlauts/diareses over both u's)?
Reply to pacybertutor1@yahoo.com