Murder in the Magick Club by Byron A. Lorrier

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I’m not sure I liked Bryn, the Magick Club owner, as I’m not sure I like Detective Rutland, the police officer who has the task to investigate on a murder happened behind the club. Both of them have an attitude towards life and people that I found a little disturbing, since it seemed detached. But then you start to pick some details, like how Bryn is almost a protector for the ones working with him (he is more than ready to defend them when Detective Rutland starts questioning around), or like the same Detective Rutland (gay) talks about Nick, the young man hanging around Magick Club, clearly turning tricks to live, and no, he is not talking about him in a sexual way (or maybe a little) but more like someone who is regretting to see a young life like that one going waste. And in the end I think I loved them, with all their very bad side and nasty comments and even sometime offensive behaviour.

When I say that you “start to pick details”, I have probably also given you an idea of the reading experience; the style is not simple, sometime the characters, mainly Bryn and Detective Rutland, start a flow of thoughts or words that is almost like a torrent, and like the one fictional character in front of them, also the reader on the other side of the page would probably like to take a breath, but it’s not possible, and the same narrative voice is almost running, to not let you have neither a second. You are there trying to collect all the pieces, and suddenly you have almost finished the novel, and the solving of the mystery somewhat is no more important, since all the details you collected give you a better puzzle than the “simple” murder you were trying to solve.

Murder in the Magick Club is not a linear mystery novel where you have a clue here and there, and you more or less arrive to the end with a 50/50 possibility to find the villain, it’s more like a melting pot of characters, and among them neither one is fully villain or fully good guy. Actually I think that most of them would require a some sort of therapy, physical or mental. It’s for sure dark humour and you have not to be scared to laugh of inappropriate things, otherwise you will feel really guilty upon finishing this novel if you liked it.

Amazon: Murder in the Magick Club
Amazon Kindle: Murder in the Magick Club
Paperback: 354 pages
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (May 3, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 143920831X
ISBN-13: 978-1439208311

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