She Who Waits: Low Town 3 - Tapa dura

Imagine that Quentin Tarantino, possessed by the ghost of J.R.R. Tolkien, did an eight-ball of cocaine and wrote a novel to be read by the late Johnny Cash. LOW TOWN is something like that, only better. * 52 Book Reviews on THE STRAIGHT RAZOR CURE * Polansky is a deft, sensitive dramatist with the blackest sense of humor--and LOW TOWN is brilliant proof. Polansky has managed to craft an assured, roaring, and rollicking hybrid, a cross-genre free-for-all that relishes its tropes while spitting out their bones. And he does it all while spinning one hell of a gripping mystery. Much like its grim, perversely charismatic antihero, LOW TOWN stakes a narrow turf--then completely owns every inch of it. * The AV Club on THE STRAIGHT RAZOR CURE * 'In TOMORROW, THE KILLING, Polansky shows us he is no one-book wonder... If you haven't read Polansky yet, you must remedy this ASAP. He writes gripping, addictive stories with a grim eloquence...Very, very highly recommended. Polansky is definitely among my new favourite authors. Essential reading.' * civilian-reader.blogspot.com * Praise for TOMORROW, THE KILLING:"With THE STRAIGHT RAZOR CURE, Polansky pushed the envelope of modern fantasy. With TOMORROW, THE KILLING, he tears through the envelope and pushes for horizons yet unseen." * Myke Cole, author of Control Point *

Low Town: the worst ghetto in the worst city in the Thirteen Lands. Good only for depravity and death. And Warden, long ago a respected agent in the formidable Black House, is now the most depraved Low Town denizen of them all. As a younger man, Warden carried out more than his fair share of terrible deeds, and never as many as when he worked for the Black House. But Warden's growing older, and the vultures are circling. Low Town is changing, faster than even he can control, and Warden knows that if he doesn't get out soon, he may never get out at all. But Warden must finally reckon with his terrible past if he can ever hope to escape it. A hospital full of lunatics, a conspiracy against the corrupt new king and a ghetto full of thieves and murderers stand between him and his slim hope for the future. And behind them all waits the one person whose betrayal Warden never expected. The one person who left him, broken and bitter, to become the man he is today. The one woman he ever loved. She who waits behind all things.