Book Review:The Shadow of the Soul (Dog Faced Gods #2) By Sarah Pinborough

The Shadow of The Soul by Sarah Pinborough

389 pages Published April 1st 2011 by Gollancz UK edition (U.S. edition to be released next year)

Last year the book that most blew my doors off was the first book in a series by the young British horror master Sarah Pinborough called The Dog-faced-gods trilogy. The first book in this series was my second favorite read of the year, and Pinborough was my favorite discovery of the year. That first book in the trilogy "A Matter of Blood" was a dark brutal hard boiled supernatural crime novel.

The novel is set in very dark times a very near future dystopia of future Britain that survives an economic collapse by surrendering to a mysterious cabal known as “The Bank.” London is recovering from a terrible terrorist attack. The atmosphere of the novel has a dark surreal feel, I pictured everything with a grey filter that made Oregon winters seem like southern California.

The first novel was in part a serial killer procedural, but followed the main character detective inspector Cass Jones as he followed and a murder investigation and discovered it was connected to his personal family tragedy. In this second novel Cass is trying to solve a mystery very different from the gruesome serial murders of the first book. Several students have recently committed suicide. They are all connected by the phrase "Chaos in the Darkness," that they either spoke or had written just before their deaths.

And it is all related to the "The Bank". In this dystopia of future Britain, the country survives an economic collapse by surrendering to a mysterious cabal known as “The Bank.” The second novel has similar structure but as you would expect the second explores the dark truth behind the "The Network" pulling the strings on the global economy and trying to bring about the end.

This second book doesn't feel as dark to me as the first one, but perhaps I was just more prepared going in having read the first book. The characters are vivid, the story well composed and the book is a page turner in general. We are inching closer to the end. Meaning a third awesome book, and the story is coming to a head. I intend to read it as soon as possible.