The Imposters of Aventil is the third in Marshall Ryan
Maresca’s “Maradaine” sequence of novels. The author has also written several
other series in the same universe – and if you’ve been following those, there’s
some crossover here.
Aventil is one of the districts in the city of Maradaine. In
comparison to others that we’ve seen in previous books, it’s rather prosperous.
There’s a university, packed out with a large number of well-heeled students –
aspiring lawyers, magnates of tomorrow, and the occasional wizard. The streets
are fairly clean, and if the money of the University is one reason, another in is
because Aventil’s crime is organised, but also fractured. There are several
different street gangs, all with their fingers in separate pieces of Aventil
territory, and each with their own history and grudges with each other. That said, they all deeply resent intrusion
into that territory from the outside – and will band together to savage
interlopers. They’re insulated by a police force which is more lethargic than
actively corrupt –unwilling to rock the boat, start trouble, or indeed finish
it. Aventil is, in its way, thriving –
money moves and everyone has an interest in a stable neighbourhood, and as a
result it has a cosmopolitan and socially active feel. This is especially true
of the University, which sees wonderfully insular, with its own politics and
problems, looking out on the rest of the neighbourhood from a bubble of
privilege you can almost see rising off the page.
The characters…well, there’s the infamous Thorn, of course,
and his gang of merry followers. Then there’s Inspector’s Rainey and Welling,
brought in to investigate murders, and trying to chase down the Thorn. Alongside
them, there’s our connection to the Aventil street gangs, who also happens to be tied to the Thorn.
Also a small horde of side characters. I think my only complaint here is that given
the smorgasbord of characters present, we don’t get to spend a lot of time with
all of them. It’s great seeing the crossover between different aspects of
Maresca’s worlds, but I think we could have done with a text twice the size to
give them all room to breathe.
Still, the characterisation is solid – especially for Minox
and Welling, whose cool competence, and incisive intelligence mixes well with
troubled consciences and icy pragmatism. Those two pretty much own any page
that they’re on. The Thorn and his gang, on the other hand – well, I need to go
back to the earlier books to really get the context of their relationships, I
think. But coming to it fresh, there’s a sense of history missing; I was able
to get a sense of what tied the characters together, and it all worked, but I
suspect that the deeper context from previous books would have helped
immensely. Still, they each get their moments to shine. There’s a sequence that
felt reminiscent of fight club halfway through the book which really shaped one
of the Thorn’s accomplices for me, for example – in their reaction to danger
and courage in the face of adversity. They also have a sense of privilege which
seems to gradually deflate as the story goes on – as the stakes rise, and they
run afoul of meddling inspectors.
They’re joined by our eyes in the gangs. This one was easier
to come to without the context, really – a lone actor, of sorts. He’s a man
struggling with old loyalties and old curses; an internal monologue turns these
over for the reader, with a genuine voice, and a tone that seems tired of the
life that’s led this far. There’s loyalty and bravery there as well, and a
sense that the centre can not hold. It’s a stark contrast to the Inspector’s
view of the criminal fraternity of Aventil as thugs and menaces – noting that
there are costs and consequences, that gang work is violent and sometimes ugly,
but not stripping away the essential humanity beneath. This is one whom I’d
follow again – to see where he ends up, if nothing else
All of these characters are thrown together in a melting
pot, as the Thorn appears to go on something of a murder spree. Execept of
course that he hasn’t, as far as he knows. Maresca has form in this area – a slow
burning plot, with investigations, discoveries, false leads and revelations,
leading to an explosive conclusion. He doesn’t disappoint this time either. I
was turning pages to work out exactly what was going on, trying to understand
what drove the murders, who was behind them and why – and then, as that started
to gel together, kept turning pages to see what would happen next. It’s a
sharply observed investigative thriller, this one, in a mature and well crafted
fantasy world.
Is it worth reading? I suspect if you’re new to Maradaine,
you might want to go back to the start of this series, or to the start of
Rainey and Welling’s adventures; it works as a standalone, but definitely
benefits from exposure to the rest of the series. If you’re already a follower
of the Thorn, I’d say pick this one up.
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