Book Review : Alex Segura - Down the Darkest Street (2016)

Pre-Order DOWN THE DARKEST STREET here (Out on April 12)

(also reviewed)
Order SILENT CITY here - Read the Review

I created this blog in 2009 because I was a nerdy and obsessive reader looking for other people to be nerdy and obsessive with. History speaks for itself: I have found you precious readers and I have to juggle a high demand for reviews and your need to read entertaining and informative pieces. Because without your readership, this place would eventually cease to exist. So, I didn't like Alex Segura's new novel Down the Darkest Street very much  and taking the easy way out would be to bitch out and not to review the book at all. I believe I would be wronging both the author and you though. That puts me in a tough spot here because the chances of putting my foot in my mouth are enormous, but let's get to work, shall we? I'll explain along the way.

Just bear with me.

Please.

Down the Darkest Street picks up after Pete Fernandez decides to stop drinking following the traumatic events of Silent City. He is miserable and doing everything he can to avoid confronting the person he was despite his friends and loved ones ruthlessly trying to get him interested in investigating again. Destiny comes looking for Pete though, under the form of Rick Blanco: his ex Emily's now estranged fiancé. The woman he cheated on Emily with has disappeared and like the profound douchebag he is, he's turning to the woman he hurt for help. And Pete. Because Pete cannot turn down a good mystery. He would very much like to, but it's not in his DNA to balk at challenge and danger.

This is where I should technically crack some jokes about the book, but I'm not gonna do that. So, what did I dislike exactly? Down the Darkest Street is very similar to Silent City, so it shares many of its issues. Notably that it's way too convenient. It's told in third person, but it feels like Pete is actually narrating the story, omitting the bad and amplifying the good in order to come off like the hero. The thing that bugged me the most though was that some chapters were written from the antagonist perspective. I thought it was a huge blunder because it spoils the clues the reader is supposed to learn WITH Pete and not before them. Pete is always playing catch up - especially with experienced readers and it throws the novel's rhythm off before you reach half and it made for a very frustrated and impatient Ben.

Not everything about Down the Darkest Street is bad. Once again, it's the peripheral stuff that shined brighter. Pete's relationship to women is very contemporary for such a classic genre. Sure he's broken and looking for meaning, but he's looking in all the wrong places and he's one of the only male protagonists actually written by a male author I've read that doesn't just see a pair of boobs on female characters. So that's cool. I mean some people are bound to really like Down the Darkest Street but if you're a regular here I take for granted you're an obsessive genre fiction nerd who liked to unpack every little detail and this novel is bound to rub you the wrong way. It doesn't mean the series is going to shit or that Alex Segura can't write. But if you're a regular here and didn't find this blog by accident, I can't really recommend this book to you.

Negative reviews are a big picture kind of thing. They suck in the moment (this is definitely not getting a thousand shares on social media), but they eventually set a baseline for what I like and don't like here and hopefully the author will pick up a few valuable insights. That's an absolute best case scenario. Most likely nothing will happen.