Sirens by Joseph KnoxMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Full disclosure in the interests of fairness: I read this for my Crimes & Thrillers reading group, and I am not a fan of the Noir sub-genre.
We’re in present day Manchester. The name of the city is never once mentioned, but some of the locations are so specific, it can be nowhere else (see accompanying photo of Beetham Tower, a nightmarish skyscraper that provides one of the book’s main settings). Our hard-boiled, first-person narrator is Aiden Waits, a disgraced yet still active police constable in his late twenties. Aiden’s moral compass is both murky and complex. He’s happy to lie about the drugs he snorts, yet, like knights of old, he is the epitome of chivalry. (view spoiler) This gallant behaviour repeats itself with nearly every woman he comes into contact with. Aiden only wishes to save them, and thereby save himself.
As far as the writing style goes, there is some interesting and effective repetition of paragraphs that gives a nice sense of deja vu, though I personally could have done with a little less “the-city-at-night-is-a-sparkling-but-treacherous-mistress” type mise-en-scene. Then again, it is the mainstay of noir. Also the editor might have highlighted a couple of issues. There’s a character whom we are told speaks for the first time, when in fact he has already spoken on the previous page; the fight at the climax is described in only the sketchiest of terms, so it feels like a rather big let down.
Having said that, it’s not at all bad. Aiden is a great main character, and if I enjoyed this genre I’m sure I would devour the whole series. I can’t imagine Knox losing any sleep over my review. He’ll be too busy signing his option with ITV.
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