Black Heart: A totally gripping serial killer thriller (Detective Dan Riley Book 1)

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The world-building is above average too. It has the usual share of magic and fantasy tropes, but some elements make it unique that I do not want to spoil here. There are shades of 'The Wheel of Time' as well as 'The Sword of Truth'. The book is also quite brutal and graphic. So be warned. It is not for the squeamish. His journey isn’t as simple as you would expect for just a traveller, because racism exists in this world, too. There are racial prejudices, because POC are thought to be ‘’stained’’= related to demonologists, who ruled a prosperous empire thousands of years ago, but required souls to feed the demons.

Black Heart by Robert Galbraith | Waterstones The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith | Waterstones

Devouring new shards of his heart and recollecting his memories, the MC starts gradually changing, which leads to moral debates within himself as he uncovers the dark truth (of his past deeds and his abilities.) Creatures called from a hundred different realities stood waiting. Massive beasts, some dwarfing even the Deredi giants, held formation beside winged nightmares from some distant hell. Many, hailing from closer realities looked human, differing only in some small detail. Purple skin, horns, claws, too many or two few fingers. With this army, he had bound the world under a single rule: His. And now, with this army, he would lose the world."I would highly recommend this to readers of GrimDark Fantasy. Here are some beautiful quotes... That night I dreamed of a strange hell where demons were immaterial spirits that could be bound to steel and iron. They thirsted for death, fed off the essence of the living as it fled the dying body.Khraen is the stand-out character, of course. Khraen is in part an archetype who tries to answer two age-old questions. However, both of those things were kind of dragged down for me by the execution of the story. The narrative is overly repetitive where it feels like it hits the same story beats over and over and over again. Ditto for the characterization. I don't know how many times we had to get inner thoughts from the main character about his conflicted nature. My best estimate is approximately 10,000. I found myself saying "Dude you murdered someone in cold blood right at the beginning. You're a homicidal maniac. Just embrace it." Fletcher had a similar issue with how often we are told people at large dislike the main character because of his skin color. It feels like he belabors this point to absurdity.

Black Heart: The Number One international bestseller The Ink Black Heart: The Number One international bestseller

Fabulous book. A serial killer is hunted by Detective Dan Riley and his team. Grips you and doesn't let go.’ Consumer Reviewer The world is one of magic permeating ever facet of life. Wizards rule, after overthrowing the old, evil demonologist emperor. There appear to be dozens of schools of magic, and each one has its own laws and capabilities. It's a varied world, Fletcher has created with heavens, hells, ancient ruins, and a mystery hidden at its core.As there’s nobody else to remember what the world used to be like before the wizards’ reign, nobody really doubts whether wizards are those men of high moral standing they claim to be or not. Commands were sent out and the demonic host, bound in servitude to the demonologists, had no choice but to obey. Make no mistake, Khraen and his companions aren’t good guys (although one question Fletcher asks is about the nature of evil - is a predator evil when it feeds itself to survive?). One of them, a necromancer, harvests people to repair herself. She treats people as a source of parts. Every day we do the things we think we have to do. So rarely do we stop to question our choices. We don’t even see deciding that we ‘have to do something’ is itself a choice. We blunder through life, writing our failures and excuses as we go, defending every choice with justifications made up after the fact. The truth is, we never really consider the consequences.” En cuanto al desarrollo del argumento se me ha hecho en algún parte un poco lento al mismo tiempo que me esperaba otra cosa. Asimismo, algunos giros de la novela me los he visto venir, mientras que otros no me los quería esperar porque me hubieran parecido demasiado morbosos, por así decirlo. Con eso no digo nada, pero al mismo tiempo lo digo todo (cuando lean la novela me entenderán).

Black Heart (Detective Dan Riley, book 1) by Anna-Lou Weatherley Black Heart (Detective Dan Riley, book 1) by Anna-Lou Weatherley

This book adds more than just murder and mayhem, it also gives you mystery and psychological insights to the killer that interest and even tugs at your heartstrings a tad…! This book will grab you and drag you through to the end leaving you wanting more from this author!’ Consumer Reviewer Asimismo, la historia es interesante y me ha parecido bastante original. Lo único es que me ha faltado un mapa, así como un poco más de desarrollo del wordbuilding. Sin embargo, lo que más destaco son los personajes, nunca me había encontrado con unos personajes tan grises, y yo que pensaba que los de La Primera Ley o los de La Compañía Negra lo eran, pero estos igual están a un nivel superior. Además, me puede que el protagonista se plantee si sus actos son buenos o malos moralmente y las reflexiones sobre ello. I'm retroactively adding a star after reading the rest of the trilogy. My original review stands below, but the next books redeemed the series for me. In truth, Fletcher gifted us with a wildly original dark fantasy concept and executed it with brutal flair. That might have been part of my initial dislike; it was just so different, standard epic fantasy expectations didn't properly apply. Anyway, it's an interesting ride and I highly recommend the series to grimdark fans. After killing the farmer’s horses, we rode them south, exchanging our dead mounts for new ones whenever their appearance decayed to the point they became recognizable as corpses.” In this quest story we follow the main character, who wakes up buried alive in the middle of nowhere, hungry, cold and has no recollection of what happened prior to his awakening. What he soon finds out, though, is that there are other versions of him wandering around, each having a piece of obsidian in their heart that holds parts of his persona (memories of his past).

Once again Michael Fletcher manages to spellbind you into this grimdark spiral of madness, and yet it feels so very fluent and logical it makes you take a double take at your own thoughts and emotions. The story is perfectly balanced on a fine edge, it holds the reader’s attention all the way as the characters grow, develop and come alive in your mind.