Oh look, Barnaby Joyce may not be the oddest thing in New England after all:
In my last review, for the Fae Lords of Oklahoma, I mentioned half the fun was seeing familiar tropes in a new setting. In some ways, this was also part of the appeal of The Doubles. In a case of the audiobook app actually getting its recommendations on track for once, I was introduced to an urban fantasy book set in Australia. And not in one of the major cities, either; rather than Melbourne or Sydney, The Doubles takes place in a regional area close to Tamworth.
Tamworth, for those of you who are not familiar, is a small city* in north-eastern New South Wales that is mostly known for country music and horses. And in The Doubles, in the stretch of country between Tamworth and blip on the map known as Werris Creek, the separation between the mortal realm and the Outside is starting to fray.**
This issue has not gone unnoticed by the Higher Powers; if this thinning of the Veil is not resolved, ‘Trespassers’ will cross over and cause havoc. This is where Kring comes in. Kring is an Envoy of the Angelic Host, which essentially makes her a magical law enforcer and a heavy. This tends to take others by suprise, because, based on appearances alone, she comes across a rather unremarkable mortal woman, not a magical powerhouse. And while Kring’s work is quite nomadic, taking her around the world, she’s is originally from eastern Australia. So, under the pretext of needing someone in possession of local knowledge, Kring is suddenly ripped from a simple job of putting down a small Trespasser (goblin) by the Host and rather gracelessly—and inelegantly—transported to a job close to this area with virtually no notice.
Kring steps off the train at Werris Creek with the knowledge that she’ll be tending to a case involving a missing child. This then turns into a case of multiple missing kids, who are all being lured to a nearby mountain through their dreams, only to be replaced with uncanny doubles. Knowledge of magic is not terribly secret—kids can take after school classes in magic, after all—but locals don’t feel equipped to deal with a problem this large on their own. In order to tie her in to the ongoing investigation, Kring get’s partnered up with a local policeman in a stockman’s hat named Dries, who, besides acting as a foil to Kring, helps introduce the reader to the local landscape and culture. Kring has become quite detached in her years work as an Envoy for the Host, and it’s only once we are introduced to Dries we start to see how bad that is.
It also turns out that the very Christian-coded angelic powers that employ Kring may not be the only game in town. Surprising no one with any knowledge of Australian history, it turns out that its not just the mortals who have acted as colonialists; the local Kamilaroi*** people have their own knowlage of magic and are more than a little mistrustful of Kring. They also have no reason to trust Envoys or the Host in general, and this causes tension between her, Dries, and those she has been sent to help.
I ultimately came to really enjoy Kring as a protagonist; she is very efficient and focused on the job at hand. As mentioned above, she does appear to others as just another plain, somewhat unremarkable woman and not someone who can sling a considerable amount of magic around. And while it is never stated plainly, I got the impression that, because of that, many of the people she interacts with during her investigation—including Dries—were expecting her to have a more warm and friendly nature, and are a bit shocked when they don’t get that. This is a woman investigating a case that revolves around children after all and, as we all know, certain stereotypes persist. Kreig follows none of them; she is not maternally oriented—she is a servant to a higher power. And her decisions and actions when carrying out their wishes can come across as quite callous. Her empathy, it seems, has become detached, especially when she’s pursuing a greater goal.
Interestingly, while there appears to be a lot of backstory here, the focus remains on the case at hand for most of the novel. There were some notable gaps in the world-building throughout that I didn’t have much time to focus on because of how fast-paced everything was. It wasn’t until later in the novel that I became certain the author was building up to something much bigger, which may be explained in later installments. But I get the feeling that, even if she doesn’t want to, Kring is going to have to indulge in a little more introspection and examine her role as an Envoy more closely. Something suspicious seems to be going on with her handlers, and she may have to make some hard choices.
With regards to urban fantasy series, I tend to be quite forgiving and am willing to stick around for a number of books before I make a final assessment. Two of my favorite series in the genre took a full three books each before I was fully on board; I was willing to look at the writers work without their training wheels and allowed them to get me up to speed with their world building before I decided I was all in. I don’t think I’m going to need three books here; while the book is fast paced, there is great balance between the fantasy and crime elements. And while there are some gaps in the world building, there’s every indication that if there is a follow up, they’ll be filled.
It’s also unexpectedly humorous at times: the goblin Kring is dealing with before she got whisked away to a new job had me sniggering.
“Is that what you call it? Murder? I just call it eatin’! I didn’t realize eatin’ was a fucking crime over here!”
“It is when you’re eating people.”
Or when Dreis and Kring find themselves surrounded in the dark by dozens of pair of eyes after a particularly intense encounter—only to find out that they’re just surrounded by a mob of kangaroos****.
So unlike some other series ,The Doubles is off to a strong start straight out the gate, and that makes for a great debut novel. Maybe less country music references than I thought there would be, but it is nice to see the the trappings of Urban Fantasy in a new setting.
For cbr18bingo, this one is the Free Space, which is being stamped over Sheep. Why? Sheep are not native.
That’s quite a few bingos now; I have one space left on the card.
