#Titanuary #BookReview ‘Relics’ by Tim Lebbon

About the book…

‘Relics’ was published in 2017 by Titan in paperback, ebook and audiobook formates and I am thrilled to be sharing my review of a title which has been hanging around my TBR pile for a little too long!
#Titanuary seemed the perfect opportunity to dig into this series which hits every button on things I love in supernatural/horror themed books.

There’s an underground black market for arcane things. Akin to the trade in rhino horns or tigers’ bones, this group traffics in mummified satyrs, gryphons’ claws, and more.

When Angela Gough’s lover Vince goes missing, she sets out to find him whatever the risk. She learns that he was employed by the infamous London crime lord Frederick Meloy, providing bizarre objects beyond imagining. Descending into the city’s underbelly, she uncovers a deadly side to the black market. It might have claimed Vince, and Angela may be next.

Tim Lebbon is an incredibly gifted writer who creates a vividly painted world, yet leaves enough room for the reader to bring their own imagination into play.

Whether writing his own fiction or developing established characters-such as those who inhabit the Aliens universe-he manages to imbue his writing with an essence of humanity to which the reader can easily relate.

In this book, he presents not only the characters of Angela and Vince as lovers trying to get back to each other, after Vince is kidnapped, he creates a world not too far removed from ours. If we just focus on the shapes in the corner of our eyes, we might just catch sight of something straight from the pages of myth and legend.

Leaving a note saying he is sorry, Angela is devastated , hurt and angry when Vince disappears. Using her skills as a criminology student she refuses to let his apology be his exit line and by investigating his life, she soon discovers he fingers in many pies, some of them containing fillings that are not strictly legal…

Characters like Fat Freddie, Mary Rock, Claudette and Lilou step out of the pages to inhabit your thoughts as you begin to piece this netherworld together and the more Angela is warned away form trying to find Vince, the more determined she is to not back down.

However, as she steps into a realm filled with what were previously considered story tale creatures-nyads, nephilim, cyclops and fairies-she can no longer ignore what she is seeing and needs to choose a side to fight on. For one is on the side of good and protection of these magical creatures who are being taken out of existence for fresh, limited edition collectors exhibits -for exmaple, angel wings. But will choosing a side mean she is on the side of angels or devils? And where does Vince stand?

Lebbon creates fabulous villains and creatures , he ramps up the tension whilst world building and manages to have this book, the first in a trilogy, end as a stand alone novel, yet also presenting a leaping on point for book 2.

Vince and Angela remind me of the relationship between Boone and Lori in Clive Barker’s novel,’Cabal’, filmed as ‘Nightbreed’ and as with that book, I was totally engaged with their story and completely adored it. ‘Cabal’ remians one of my favourite of Barker’s works and I am genuinely excited to be able to read on past the last page of ‘Relics’, and embark on Book 2, ‘The Folded Land’.

Supernatural mysteries don’t come much better than this!

About the author… 

Tim Lebbon was born in London in 1969. He has been writing ever since he can remember. The first story he recalls actually finishing was when he was nine years old. It involved a train hijacking, and one of the hijackers being clumsy enough to drop his gun. Naturally the hero found the gun and went on a killing spree. Die Hard on the 10:17 from Paddington.

His first published story was in the UK indie magazine Psychotrope in 1994, and in 1997 Tanjen published his first novel Mesmer. Since then he’s had almost thirty books published in the UK and US by Bantam Spectra, Allison & Busby, Night Shade Books, Simon & Schuster, Leisure Books, PS Publishing, Necessary Evil Press, Cemetery Dance and many others.

Quite a few of his novellas and novels have been optioned for the screen, including White, Exorcising Angels, Until She Sleeps, Face, In Perpetuiry, and The Nature of Balance.

Late in 2006 Tim Lebbon became a full-time writer.

This source of this biography was Tim Lebbon’s official website www.timlebbon.net.

Twitter @TitanBooks @timlebbon