Book Review: The Night Market by Jonathan Moore

“If she’s not crazy,” Jenner said, “then she knows something. But maybe it’s not the same thing she’s telling you.”

This quote sums up SO MUCH of this book, it’s unreal… This was an absolutely spot-on thriller. By rights, I should be too freaked out to even live in the world these days – I seem to keep reading this type of incredibly detailed, scarily sophisticated thrill-ride book about the potential for insane evils done in the name of technology and progress…

This one seemed like it was starting slow, then with a whip crack the action kicked in half-way through the second chapter – and from that moment on, nothing is as it seems. Every throwaway remark, every casual observation, every adjective is a clue – and when the Big Reveal comes, handfuls of pages from the end, you won’t believe it. Or you will. Or you will wonder… It was THAT kind of book: a perfect storm of paranoia and suspicion and teasers. You’re given just enough to keep you hooked tight, then – BAM – the floor drops out. Then you’re lulled back a bit, until it happens again. But somehow you never learn from those falls, never grow accustomed to the bait-and-switch in the action. Moore is THAT good.

Ross Carver is the perfect protagonist for this story – gritty, wary, but looking to believe. He lends an air of credibility to the entire affair that is indisputable. His supporting cast is equally strong, bringing him what he needs without ever seeming to be too tidy about it. The near-future (presumably) San Francisco Moore drops us into is practically a character itself, full of quirks and foibles and edgy personality that worms its way into your brain while you read until you forget that this is not the *real* world. At least not yet.

Everyone’s heard of the devil, whether they’ve had any dealings with him or not.

The bad guys are deliciously evil – even, if not especially, when they’re being banal about their evil deeds. Again, a spot-on delivery mechanism for the tale being told. The plot has more angles than an Escher staircase, and each character seems to present at least that many faces… But the layers are subtle, nuanced – there’s so much going on in the background that at times it seems impossible that it will all come together, especially as you near the end and realize there aren’t *that* many pages left but there are still warehouses’ worth of loose ends. Yet the ending never felt rushed or inappropriately tidied together; the Reveal plays out with the same delicate surgical precision of the rest of the book, despite its relatively small (small in number of pages only, I assure you) stature.

I literally couldn’t put this one down. This was my first foray into Jonathan Moore’s world(s) but I assure you it won’t be the last, especially since I now understand there are two other books set in this same world!

My review copy was provided by NetGalley. The Night Market releases on January 16, 2018.