‘Fistful of Nohtings’ is set in an incredibly noir, dieselpunk place. An alternative Los Angeles of 1950s, where WWII never ended, and actually came to the US and wrecked havoc on the city. Part of it sank into the ground and people found shelter in there, a maze of tunnels and cave-like places. Outdoors Los Angeles, constantly bombarded and at war, is no place for human beings.
Even if, someone could argue, the Hollywoodholes aren’t either.
In this place of darkness, the underworld has mostly taken over, and people live a half-life… sometimes literary, since many have parts of their body replaced with mechanisms.
I’ll be honest, the setting is extremely interesting.

So it’s a shame the story falls somewhat short of expectations. It is, at its core, a mystery and it rests in the hands of a disillusioned sleuth to solve it – as in good noir tradition.
But the mystery is convoluted, cryptic in many places and I could never follow it clearly. Things seem to happen to Jim (the main character) by mere chance all the time, it was hard for me to see a progression in the way they were presented. Some repeated themselves a bit too often (Jim is repeatedly beaten up and loses conscience, for example). I think that more focus on Jim’s actions and especially his reasons would have strengthened the structure of the story, which – on the other hand – doesn’t lack action. It’s a fast paced read.

Era lingo is very heavy, so although it does help creating the setting, sometimes it is too distracting.

Jim’s relationship with the Betty, the female main character, is very nice, instead. It never turns into a romance, but there is always a lot of tension between them, both sexual and emotional. And I liked this.
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