Lucas Blogs About Books

Huh, I didn't realize that a book could be a libra. So, what's this book's deal? It's the conclusion to the Amberlough Dossier by Lara Elena Donnelly. We've discussed the two previous entries on this very blog. Oh, right. I'll get around to reading those one day. All, right, but we'll definitely be discussing SPOILERS  for the previous books, so don't say I didn't warn you. I will not. All right, so this book begins about five years after the end of Armistice . The One State Party (or Ospies) have been removed from power and the provisional government is preparing for the first election since the transition of power and the front runners are Opal Saeger, a populist organizer who worked within the Catwalk resistance group whose terrorist attacks helped oust the OSP, and Emmeline Frye, an industrialist with a firm understanding of policy and optics but also a clear bent towards cronyism and underhanded deal-making. Wait! What abou...

Literal peacocking. So, what's this book's deal? Well, part one of it's deal is that it's the sequel to Amberlough  by Lara Elena Donnelly. You may remember that I reviewed that book last year and that I enjoyed it. It takes place in a fictional country called Gedda with more than a few parallels to Europe in the 1920s, and centers around the lives of spies and criminals as they try to survive a coup by a fascist, authoritarian party. Thank you for filling me in, I had forgotten. You mean you still haven't read it? I'm not angry, but I am disappointed. You're not my dad! Good point. Anyway, like I said, this is the next entry in the series, so we might end up revealing a few SPOILERS   about Amberlough , consider this your warning. Does it pick up where the last book left off? Yes and no. There hasn't been a huge shift in the status quo, but it is several months later. Aristide Makricosta, former stripper and emcee at the Bee cabaret, ...

Huh, what's that on the back cover bottom right? Could it be a picture of the next book in the series? So, what's this book's deal? Well, Amberlough is the first novel by Lara Elena Donnelly. It's a sort of "sex and violence"/"trust no one" spy thriller. It takes place in a fictional country called Gedda that's on the verge of a fascist coup. We start with Cyril DePaul waking up in the apartment of his lover Aristide Makricosta. Cyril works a desk job at the "Foxhole" – Amberlough's branch of the Federal Office of Central Intelligence Services – and he probably shouldn't be sleeping with Ari since Ari's the boss of a local smuggling outfit, that is when he's not emceeing at the Bumble Bee cabaret. Also working at the Bee is Cordelia Lehane, she's a stripper who moonlights as a drug-dealer and is currently two-timing the Bee's owner with his best friend, the Bee's stand-up comic. The plot kicks into ge...