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A review by d_audy
Mister Slaughter by Robert R. McCammon
5.0
This series is only getting better as it progresses. Not only is it excellent for its detailed historical reconstitution (with a few avowed cheats here and there) but it is above all else a really great mystery and adventure story, with a clever yet not-quite-flawless young protagonist who's absolutely endearing and easy to root for.
Where Mister Slaughter and the previous entries of this series truly shine is with the expanding gallery of secondary characters, colourful and truculent, who come to life on the page under the pen of an immensely talented story teller. Berry and her broadsheet owner grandfather, Hudson Greathouse, Lillehorn, Tom Bond, Zed, Walker, John Five, Mrs. Herrald, McCaggers, Polly Blossom.. they're all more fun to read about than the next. And then there are the villains, each more twisted, evil, vicious, unique than the other, and as colourful iconic and bigger than life than the Milady of Dumas, Moriarty, James Bond or Dick Tracy villains (if you like them full of ambiguity and shades of gray, this may not be the right series for you).
McCammon manages to tell a tale that feels both really old fashioned in some respect but is resolutely modern in other aspects of his approach. He recalls sometime the historical adventures novels of Alexandre Dumas, with a ounce of Conan Doyle (and even more Mark Frost's novels inspired by Sherlock Holmes) or the lush and descriptive southern prose of the best novels of a Robert Jordan (minus the epic fantasy setting, keeping just the 18th century world and way of life that was a major inspiration). But there's also all the plot twists and manner of more modern thrillers and mysteries, transposed to the past in a really successful way. And McCammon's career as an horror writer isn't completely left behind, with plenty of blood curdling murders, a good dose of chills and nail biting suspense.
For a series that started as a stand alone project (with a first novel that's excellent and now forms a sort of prologue to the series) McCammon managed to turn it in a gripping tale that so far gets more exciting and interesting with each entry, with a world and story arc that gets larger and larger, plenty of secrets, conspiracies and intrigue around all the action.
Where Mister Slaughter and the previous entries of this series truly shine is with the expanding gallery of secondary characters, colourful and truculent, who come to life on the page under the pen of an immensely talented story teller. Berry and her broadsheet owner grandfather, Hudson Greathouse, Lillehorn, Tom Bond, Zed, Walker, John Five, Mrs. Herrald, McCaggers, Polly Blossom.. they're all more fun to read about than the next. And then there are the villains, each more twisted, evil, vicious, unique than the other, and as colourful iconic and bigger than life than the Milady of Dumas, Moriarty, James Bond or Dick Tracy villains (if you like them full of ambiguity and shades of gray, this may not be the right series for you).
McCammon manages to tell a tale that feels both really old fashioned in some respect but is resolutely modern in other aspects of his approach. He recalls sometime the historical adventures novels of Alexandre Dumas, with a ounce of Conan Doyle (and even more Mark Frost's novels inspired by Sherlock Holmes) or the lush and descriptive southern prose of the best novels of a Robert Jordan (minus the epic fantasy setting, keeping just the 18th century world and way of life that was a major inspiration). But there's also all the plot twists and manner of more modern thrillers and mysteries, transposed to the past in a really successful way. And McCammon's career as an horror writer isn't completely left behind, with plenty of blood curdling murders, a good dose of chills and nail biting suspense.
For a series that started as a stand alone project (with a first novel that's excellent and now forms a sort of prologue to the series) McCammon managed to turn it in a gripping tale that so far gets more exciting and interesting with each entry, with a world and story arc that gets larger and larger, plenty of secrets, conspiracies and intrigue around all the action.