Beneath A Thousand Skies

Hello!

This was meant to be up yesterday afternoon, but my day disappeared under a tidal wave of books and I was too frazzled to finish corralling my final thoughts on this book. But today I am reviewing The Dead Don’t Lie by Stephen Aryan the second book in the Blackstone Files, and a massive thank you to the author for the e-arc and it was delight to return to this world and especially these characters.

‘Bracken always told me not to think in straight lines, because the distance between two points could be a mile ‘apart or only a single step in the right direction.’

The Dead Don’t Lie was a very different experience from its predecessor, although you could see the bones of the first book in it, and I like how Cole and Bracken are almost the ambassadors carrying that foundation out into the wider world. The worldbuilding especially expanded in this one, and The Wild which had seemed like a looming, distant thing when we were caught in the vents of the city, was very much a living, breathing thing here; and there was very much a feeling of the known and unknown walking hand in hand, especially because we were seeing through the eyes of someone who didn’t know the wild. It was also a very alluring world, imagining a reclaimed wild-scape and the beasts that would fill it, and especially when we reached Byron and saw the methods they had adapted to deal with the Wild and its threats, it offers that fascinating view of how people survive when they are no longer the dominant ones.

Byron itself immediately established itself as very different from New York, not least because of that delicately balanced relationship with the Wild, but because whereas New York was a broad tapestry against which the story played out. The story and the tapestry were a lot more entwined, because this wasn’t a place you could lose yourself in, and the small town vibes were very well done. I also really enjoyed the bits and pieces about the trade and local economy that were dropped in, and the relationship between settlements like this and New York – and it was funny to realise that like Cole, I had never considered that in New York Minute – but also very much kept the feeling of this world stretching beyond what we are experiencing. I also liked how society itself had adapted away from the city, with the folklore and traditions bleeding from that, but also, with regards to religion and how there was a much greater, albeit subtle freedom here, an understanding that sometimes it’s better to look the other way in order to maintain a greater peace.

I also very much enjoyed the parallel of the two sides being out of their depths. On the one hand we had Cole very much out of his usual environment in the Wild, and I very much liked how that was established during the journey to Byron – the mistakes, the tension, the newness bleeding into fear (I was also very much a fan of Turnip!); but also shown though how he saw Byron, so different from the city he was used to, with habits that seemed foreign because of that past experience. On the other hand, we had Byron and its residents, used to life on the edge of the Wild and all the dangers that wrought, now facing a completely different threat, one that left them out of their depth and needing that outside help. Needing someone like Cole who had already seen a lot of the worst that people could do. It was two worlds colliding in the same horrific circumstances, and it made for an interesting partnership, with the flavouring of the usual jabs about city folk in the country, and the antagonism of not wanting outside help, poured into the melting pot of a situation where very few could be trusted.

Aryan captured the delicate balance of having to work with the locals, with people who were possibly involved, while also suspecting everyone very well. It was a quiet, understated tension in every interaction, that ran counterpoint to the suspicions playing out directly on the page and it felt like you had to question every interaction, every relationship. I particularly enjoyed how this was further played with through Cole’s manoeuvring of those he did choose to work with, the manipulation of friend and foe alike. And it was further heightened by the fact that Bracken, the one person he could unquestionably trust was fighting his own fight and the deterioration his condition was hard to see, and the emotional ripples that came from that were very well done for both of them.

The mystery itself was beautifully done, and I loved the blend of crime and almost folk horror as details began to unfold; especially with how it tied in with the history of Byron and its people, and local traditions. I also liked how the suspicions bounced, which along with how Cole was working, meant that I was suspicious of nearly everyone all the way through – even to the very end and the climax of the hunt, I kept waiting, because these were murky waters indeed. The conclusion of the investigation itself had me on the edge of my seat to the very end, and I really liked that everything had built up to the point where you were questioning if something was going to happen, with Aryan really held that note of ‘what if’ to the perfect point.

One thing that did throw me slightly out of the story was the ending. It felt very much like it came from left field, perhaps because I was so focused on Bracken and what was happening with him and hoping they would get to New Jersey to see his daughters. At the same time, it cast us very firmly into an element of the world that we’ve only scratched the surface off, and the final twist did get me, as does the promise of more to come in the world. It was just a little jarring against where the story had been.

Overall, The Dead Don’t Lie was for me a step up from New York Minute which I had enjoyed thoroughly. The expanded worldbuilding, especially of the Wild was fantastic and honestly, I would have been happy to read an entire book of Cole and Bracken’s mishaps on the road; and the elements of folk horror, combined with some very well done detective work made for an incredibly compelling story and it was just a delight to spend more time with Cole and Bracken (I will throw hands if anything happens to Bracken though!). A fantastic read that I would highly recommend, and I will eagerly be waiting for more instalments in the Blackstone Files.