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The private detective we all know and love from books and movies doesn't exist. At least not anymore. Nobody opens up an investigation office anymore and starts digging into other people's business like that. So, who are the Phillip Marlowes of the 21st century exactly? Alex Segura's first novel Silent City, while being uneven and sometimes dissonant, introduces a strong candidate to the noble mission of modernizing detective fiction in Pete Fernandez. Silent City, which is officially reissued by Polis Books next Tuesday, is all ups and downs but it has the most important foundation for a successful series: a strong (and interesting) identity.
Pete Fernandez is an sports editor at the Miami Times, an institution slowly dying because of the advent of digital media. He's a complete mess: alcoholic, recently separated and miserable in a job he barely deserves. His life starts changing though when Chaz Bentley, asks him to investigate on his daughter's disappearance. Kathy Bentley is another colleague of Peter, a hot shot investigative reporter at the Times. At the time of her disappearance, she was investigating a local urban legend nicknamed "Silent Death". It's a strange enough request because Pete barely knows Chaz and Kathy, but he's adrift and looking for purpose, so he agrees and takes a swan dive into the underbelly of a city he thought he knew.
Even if he's reckless and self-centered, it's tough not to like Pete Fernandez. He's adorably messy and pigheaded. His behavior isn't all that different from the legendary detectives we all love. The only variable about him that's inherently contemporary is that he has a network of friends that care for him and Pete makes them worry a lot throughout Silent City. He keeps dragging people who love him into dangerous situations, but at no moment it feels like a whim. Pete needs to atone for letting his own apathy destroy his life. His own salvation is as important to him as finding Kathy dead or alive and it's a detail I greatly appreciated. By the way, past and future readers, what do you think about Mark Ruffalo playing Pete?
A great protagonist will lead you so far, but he won't make or break your novel on his own. I had much more trouble with the plot of Silent City and how it is unfolding than I had with Pete Fernandez himself. I had issues the characters behaving like they knew what already happened. The first thing Pete does about Kathy is that he breaks into her apartment and takes her cat away. Who does that without knowing something already went horribly wrong? Obviously, neither Peter or any member of the support cast knows what happened, but they behave like they do and makes Silent City a strangely dissonant reading experience for such contemporary hardboiled thriller.
Another thing that bugged me (and this one's more of a pet peeve of mine) is Alex Segura's tendency to fill in every blanks. Silent City is a unilateral experience that keeps reader's involvement at a minimum. The meaning of every telephone ring, defiant stares and unspoken feelings is laid out entirely. Some readers probably look for that in the novels they read, but not me. I thought it was overbearing. I was initially bugged by the outlandish plot that reminded me of perennial favorite of mine Cobra, because it was very dissonant with the contemporary and realistic nature of Pete Fernandez as a character. I ultimately made peace with that aspect though by imagining Silent City as a late night cartoon * and I suggest you do the same. It smooths a lot of things out.
The worst sin a novel can commit is being flat and Silent City definitely isn't. It's flawed, it had a couple infuriating wrinkles, but it has a strong identity and a charismatic protagonist, which swings the needle both ways pretty hard and it's a good thing that it does. Shows Alex Segura has enough talent to trigger passions and debates, and to make his readers care about Pete Fernandez. It really is the endgame here: introducing his heartbroken journalist and exposing his transformation into a passionate and reckless investigator. There are still bumps to smooth out, but there's a lot of promise and intrigue to Silent City. Enough to make me read Down the Darkest Street, which I will review next moth, close to the official release date. Am going to get to the bottom of that Pete Fernandez thing.
* Featuring a rotoscoped Mark Ruffalo, of course.