The Severed Streets is Paul Cornell's second
Shadow Police novel, his
urban fantasy series about a small team of London police who've been gifted/cursed
with a form of second sight that only works within the boundaries of London (or, it
turns out, selected other cities around the world.) This installment has a backdrop
of political unrest and riots, as a supernatural figure that seems to be emulating
Jack the Ripper starts to wreak havoc, but twisting the Ripper's MO to actually only
kill men. It's strong but
very dark, which may be one reason it took me a
while to get through - the political metaphor is clear and this is a very angry book
that takes a lot of frustration out on its characters. Its bleak nature made it hard
to pick up sometimes, especially when reading it at a time when the situation is
even worse than the one a couple of years ago that Cornell is railing against.
The other very contentious issue with this particular book is a little in-joke that
goes way too far. In a novel where a number of characters have very obvious
real-life counterparts, it's a good gag to have a knowing reference to a famous
fantasy author being part of London's supernatural subculture, and then turn round
at the end of the paragraph and state outright that it's Neil Gaiman. To then have
that cameo expand and just keep on getting bigger until Gaiman ends up having
massive plot significance just feels really indulgent.
So it's a shame the one touch of levity is a smug one that takes you out of the
story, but it's an interesting enough world that I probably won't be giving up on it
just yet, although I hope the next book in the series features a bit more actual
escapism in its fantasy.
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