Review: New York Minute by Stephen Aryan
Blurb:
A noir story, set in an alternate New York City.
After years of being a cop, and now a private investigator, there’s little that surprises Cole Blackstone. But when someone working for Karl Dolman, the most notorious crime boss in the city asks for his help, Cole is caught off guard, and more than a little afraid.
Dolman’s daughter, Selina, has gone missing. To prevent a gang war that will tear the city apart, Cole must find her. But the job is being made more difficult as everyone is interfering, cops and criminals, and no one wants him to succeed.
Together with his childhood friend, Bracken Hart, the two men must navigate the depths of the city’s underworld for answers.In a race against the clock, Cole needs to find out what happened to Selina, and who is responsible, before the streets run red.
Review:
This would be my first review fully written up after WorldCon, not before or during. And considering I had just finished the novel a day before heading to Glasgow, a fitting choice. It was fun talking with him there, and my mind was lingering about what I would write about “New York Minute”, and then I stumbled into the rabbit hole that is Joe Abercrombie's grim dark novels. So now I am happy to let my mind wander to slightly happier pastures, where still momentous events happen, just not as miserable.
If I had to sell “New York Minute” to my friends and family, I’d give them these two sentences:
“Cole’s a retired cop in the illustrious city of New York. Nowadays, he’s making a living as a PI, and one day, a dangerous client comes knocking.”,
alongside my usual question that is just there to tickle the mind into wanting to know more.
But like usual, that isn’t the full breadth of what happens in the story, nor does it help give a deeper understanding of the characters or world before you jump in.
Without much ado, let’s start with Cole Blackstone, Karl Doleman, and Karls daughter, Selina.
Cole’s a PI after retiring from the police force, due to the fact that the police precinct and the less than honourable men and women inside had lost its allure to him. He’s doing well as a PI, living in the suburbs of New York. Nothing too dramatic, yet by the end of it, he is forced to move on from his humble abode elsewhere due to circumstances. As a character, he grows a bit, learns a bit, and ultimately comes to the conclusion that he isn’t welcome any more.
Karl Doleman is the king of crime in New York, living in an abode that, while for us would seem simple enough, would be unthinkable to attain there for the common folk of the city. He resides above the rest, but that can’t save him from the chaos to come. As for character development, we see him be a simple man with his family, a terrible man when it comes to business.
His daughter however is a different story. She is taken, so it seems, and is mostly missing from the story, so not much is known about her aside from her taste in women, her expenses and two of her acquaintances who’ve helped point Cole and his friend towards her kidnappers.
From the characters we go to the plot. I made mental notes while reading this one and tossed them out the window when things finally clicked together. It follows the detective path of questioning, fighting, reflecting and then more questioning, yet it still threw me for a loop within the last pages of the novel. I liked how Cole and us readers get all the clues, and slowly, as he starts to get what is going on, we get it too. That was well done.
Then, from the plot we go to the world setting. Throughout the whole book, I had a sense of unease. Sure, I knew that this was an alternate New York, and people were building with materials far beyond what we use today, yet also, they don’t. Cole himself says that the common folk forsook the knowledge of the scientists and builders, wanting to do it themselves. That occurrence was a few hundred years ago. Hints and clues were handed to me throughout reading inside the text itself, from talk of arriving from the stars, to other cities, like London and Sydney. Familiar, yet not. Besides that, there’s talk about the encroaching wilderness. The ever present jungle. Ever creeping into civilization, ever ready to kill the unwary. To combat this everyone carries a weapon. And this presents questions… Where did New York come from, who built it, and who engineered the now failing electricity that still flows in some places? All of those questions get answered, some more easily to see than others when reading certain chapters of “New York Minute”.
Afterwards, finally, there’s the incurable, somewhat inevitable disease called the Slate that has the effect of turning the afflicted into living stone. Most end their suffering earlier, yet not all, and throughout the book, we get to see some changes take place of someone afflicted by the Slate. Yet, despite all that, it’s not the primary concern, so maybe it’ll pop up in later books. A cool concept, however not utilised more than once or twice when needed. Still interesting to see how it affected people within “New York Minute” though.
Lastly, if I had to add criticism about Stephen Aryan’s latest work, I’d have to say that the first person dialogue was a bit clunky, and some parts in first person made me reread it. However, this is his first novel in first person, and it was an enjoyable shift from the third person in “The Coward”. I’m therefore interested in where he’ll take this series.
If you like a detective story and bloody combat scenes in a different New York, this one's for you.
As always, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next reads. However, if it hasn’t, don’t fret. There’s countless more reviews on the site. Including two novels I got to beta read by two other fantastic authors. One of which is for Sam Paisley’s hidden project until recently, reviewed by Amanda Simas here, and the other for Aaron M. Payne’s debut novel, with a review by Joshua Walker over here.
Wherever you are reading this review, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
