Not as technically proficient as some authors out there, he writes more in the vein of Paul Kearney and with the pacing and grasp of James Barclay.

Polansky is a good writer, and writes a very impressive story. I think that this more selfish depiction of a lead character is something that allows us to more readily approve – or at least understand – of Warden’s decisions. That doesn’t mean he is a character we cannot identify with, just the opposite in fact. He does good, occasionally, but really more as a by-product of his more nefarious dealings and selfish lifestyle. There is a real sense of ‘raw’ to this book, as if we’re actually reading an accounting written down by the blunt and worldly lead character, rather than a depiction of his heroic lifestyle, which doesn’t actually exist.

The Straight Razor Cure shows us the world through Warden’s eyes, an ex-soldier now drug-dealer who gets himself wrapped up in solving the mysterious case of disappearing children who eventually end up found dead a few days later. Well, I was right on the money, as it turned out. I’d bet a decent penny that the book I’ve just started – The Straight Razor Cure by – is a winner. If the killer doesn't find him first.Īfter picking up and quickly dismissing a book that appeared to feature a 13 year-old mercenary leader I turned to another book that had arrived in the last few months of 2011, ‘The Straight Razor Cure’ by Daniel Polansky. With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he's the only man with a hope of finding the killer. But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley. You'd struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his. Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls.

Low Town by Daniel Polansky