Stiletto by Dan O’Malley
I just finished Stiletto, the second novel from Dan O’Malley. If you have not yet read his first book, The Rook, you should. Our local book club has read it twice by reader request, and it will then let you read Stiletto.
Dan O’Malley writes modern supernatural spy novels. This is Her Majesty’s very secret service, quietly addressing supernatural threats. The whimsy in his writing is often compared favorably to Douglas Adams. There is always a hint of the absurd and a grounding in reality.
Stiletto is much more of a page-turner than the first book. Some people have complained that the exposition and world-building of The Rook slows it down too much. Stiletto, if anything, has a bit much action, as one of our protagonists is a field agent who is pulled away from her duties to assist with diplomatic affairs.
My favorite thing in the book is the way the author introduces a trick and then immediately uses it again a chapter or two later in a way that remains surprising. He just told you this thing exists, but you are used to books bringing up something neat, using it for a scene, then forgetting it. Dan O’Malley can use the same trick literally two pages later and still make it a surprise.
If you are anything like me, you are going to be getting towards the end of the book, seeing the number of pages left, and thinking there is no way this can be brought to a satisfying conclusion. The climax elegantly brings together a half-dozen strands in the book into something surprising but entirely logical. You may not have seen it coming, but it makes so much sense.
Worth reading. Good writing, good dialogue, good scenes, good story arc. Good intrigue, where more things make sense as you find out which characters have been lying to each other and to you.