Manuel reviewed Crossfire by Matthew Farrer
A solid piece of crime fiction
4 stars
Typical crime/ detective story without much ingenuity on that part, though not in a bad way. The novel is a solid piece of crime fiction: well crafted in its pacing and general plot points. Shira Calpurnia, the protagonist, is an overall believable character. Her actions, thoughts, motivations all add up nicely in front of what we get to know about her backstory. The same goes for the main antagonist as well as most of the side characters. The story fits well into the Warhammer 40K universe, especially when regarding one of the general plot points – one about the convolution of all the governing factions on an Imperial world. This convolution is also carried through by the use of flowery speech by most officials, and by showing infights and overdone bureaucracy when it comes to questions about jurisdiction and the like. A nice flair which also adds to that, are …
Typical crime/ detective story without much ingenuity on that part, though not in a bad way. The novel is a solid piece of crime fiction: well crafted in its pacing and general plot points. Shira Calpurnia, the protagonist, is an overall believable character. Her actions, thoughts, motivations all add up nicely in front of what we get to know about her backstory. The same goes for the main antagonist as well as most of the side characters. The story fits well into the Warhammer 40K universe, especially when regarding one of the general plot points – one about the convolution of all the governing factions on an Imperial world. This convolution is also carried through by the use of flowery speech by most officials, and by showing infights and overdone bureaucracy when it comes to questions about jurisdiction and the like. A nice flair which also adds to that, are official liturgies at the start of each chapter, that belong to the religious event over which time the story takes place.