I first noticed Deadworld when I read a less-than-cheerful review of it. Being the contrary bugger I am, I logged on to Amazon and downloaded it. (At that time, it was free.) Funny how that works, isn't it?
The Plot
This is a pretty good take on the buddy cop/paranormal investigator thing. All the elements are there: violence, sex, creepy bad guys and good guys haunted by secrets/terrible pasts. It's entertaining, though a little predictable towards the end. Still, knowing what was coming didn't stop me reading on till the end and I've added Duncan's follow-up Vengeful Dead to my 'to read' pile.
The Characters
This is where Duncan lost a point in my review scale. Our heroine, FBI agent Jackie Rutledge and her sidekick agent Laurel Carpenter are a Chicago version of Mulder and Scully from the X-Files, only they're both believers and they're both female and only one of them is gay.
Jackie's the one with the haunted past, the booze problem, the big temper and the big gun. Laurel's the one who can see ghosts and other supernatural characters. They're the good guys. The problem is, Jackie's just a little too messed up - too jaded and thus cliched to be really enjoyable. And Laurel... Okay, she's a medium and supposed to be sensitive and all that, but she's also an FBI agent. She just comes across as a bit too wet to be credible.
Then there's Nick, a vampire also with a haunted past, his female sidekick Shelby, and another vampire called Cornelius Drake. Look at the character names here - you don't have to be a super genius to figure out which one's the real bad guy.
The Style
Duncan throws you into the deep end with little to no background story. I felt as if I was reading the third or fourth in a series instead of the first. It's really cool to read a book that's not weighed down with its own back-story, but Duncan overdid the restraint a tad. The suspense and action are fairly well-paced and Duncan unveils the history of his characters and (thus the reason behind all the dirty deeds done by the bad guy) quite well.
Deadworld could have done with a few more red-herrings though. Suspense needs a bit of that to balance it out, so where Deadworld could have been a real page-turner with the reader not knowing what will happen next, it wound up being a cut-and-dried race against time with the reader being able to guess what happens in the end. Still, it's an easy read that doesn't insult your intelligence. Nice.
The Setting
I don't know Chicago. I've been there once and all I can remember about it is there being a lake, a tall building and one night I went to restaurant and ate ribs then went to a blues bar. The references to street names and locations may have been necessary to the action, but only just. What really annoyed me were the frequent mentions of a coffee & donut place - so frequent that I wondered if Duncan got some product placement funding. Not necessary at all.
Conclusion
Deadworld didn't blow me away, but it certainly was written well enough to keep me reading. I'm looking forward to reading more by J N Duncan. 6/10.
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