London In Black – Jack Lutz
A TENSE, TICKING-BOMB THRILLER SET IN A GRITTY NEAR-FUTURE LONDON
LONDON 2027
Terrorists deploy London Black, a highly sophisticated nerve gas, at Waterloo Station. For ten percent of the population – the ‘Vulnerables’ – exposure means near-certain death. Only a lucky few survive.
LONDON 2029
Copy-cat strikes plague the city, its Vulnerable inhabitants kept safe by regular Boost injections. As the anniversary of the first attacks draws near, DI Lucy Stone, a guilt-ridden Vulnerable herself, is called to investigate a gruesome murder of a scientist. Her investigation soon unearths the possibility that he was working on an antidote – one that Lucy desperately needs, as her Boosts become less and less effective.
But is the antidote real? And can Lucy solve the case before her Boosts stop working?
My thanks to Tara at Pushkin Press for the opportunity to join the blog tour for London in Black. I am reviewing a purchased digital copy of the book.
I have read a few dystopian stories for this blog and too often the blurb on those books made the book sound edgy and terrifying but the story just did not deliver on that early promise. So it was a genuine pleasure to discover London in Black was graphic, edgy and sufficiently nasty to tick all my boxes.
The cause of the apolcalypic event in this story was a toxin attack on London. Large numbers of the population were not harmed by the gas but for the vulnerable amonst them infection meant a prolonged and terrifying slide towards a painful death. A very small percentage of those vulnerable are hanging on to life, their bodies dependant upon a drug developed by scientist Flinders Cox and manufactured by his firm. But Flinders Cox has been murdered and DI Lucy Stone is on the case. Except she isn’t because she has been suspended from duty.
Lucy is one of the vulnerable who relies upon the drug Cox developed. She monitors her reistance to the effects of London Black (the toxin) and takes a daily booster to keep her alive. But the booster seems to be losing efficiency and with each hour her monitor shows her defences against infection are falling. If Cox has been killed then who will be able to continue his research and develop an antidote? Why was this prominent scientist killed and who benefits from his death?
London in Black takes a fast paced murder investigation and throws in the drama of the lead character constantly battling to avoid potential exposure to toxins which could kill her. The prospect of Lucy’s daily booster failing her and losing effectiveness over each day means she is in a real race against time to solve this case and uncover what Cox had been working on at the time of his death. Could it have been an antidote which would cure her?
I really enjoyed the duplicity and red herrings littered through this story. I thought I was doing well in unpicking motives and identifying possible suspects but Jack Lutz had other ideas and kept me on my toes with revelations and surprises which totally caught me off guard. Despite my abject failure at guessing where this story may take me I was fully onboard for the ride. At the end of the book I was only disappointed it was finished – I could easily have spent more time reading about this near future London.
If you want a thriller which offers a high tempo and edgy, gritty storyline then you should look no further.
London in Black is published by Pushkin Press and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09YN2YPGV/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0