Hell's Horizon is the second book in The City trilogy. I have a review up for the first book Procession of the Dead. I do have plans on reading the third book, I just don't know when because every time I go to my library and check, it is not on the shelf. With that being said I hope you enjoy!
Al Jeery is a member of The Cardinal's personal guard. The Cardinal rules over the City, and the City is nothing but corruption. Al starts to question his loyalty to The Cardinal when he is taken to Party Central to investigate a murder. Al discovers something at the crime scene and other things just don't add up. A series of corpses and a horrifying mystery is the path that Al trails down almost unwillingly. While he's there he learns of a few disturbing facts that have been held from him. The Incan forefathers, the crazy Cardinal, and Paucar Wami all have their play with Al. Wami is a deadly man who kills without remorse. Al thinks he and Wami are two different people, but he is about to find out that there is more to Wami than meets the eye.
The events in Hell's Horizon take place along side Procession of the Dead. So throughout the book Capac is mentioned and the reader is able to see a different side of things from the previous book. Things are no longer one sided. The Cardinal lets a couple of facts be known that makes the reader go "oh, that's why he did that". The beginning of this book captivated me and had me wanting more. The middle disappointed me, and the end swung around and picked itself back up. Al is a interesting character, mixing Wami in with him and all the murder just makes him that more interesting. I kind of knew that there was more to Al then what was being given and sure enough there is. Shan paints a great picture when it comes to details of things happening, but there wasn't too many details about Al's features. You do get a few details though, here and there but it is very quick and if you are not paying attention close enough you may miss them. I loved it when things got interesting which was a fair amount of the time, it wasn't as wordy anymore. For Hell's Horizon when things were good, they were really good. But when they weren't it was upsetting because the first book was so good. Thankfully there isn't any repeating of scenes from Procession of the Dead. Things were mentioned in passing, which helped pin point when events where taking place in comparison with the first book.
I was really disappointed with the middle of the book, once the murders got going and things got interesting, the book almost seemed to halt and become really wordy. Yes, there were little hints dropped along the way but, for myself, I don't think it would have mattered if I would have skipped over them. *SPOILER-ALERT* I basically knew that Bill (Al's cop friend) and Pricilla (a friend of a friend of Al's) where in on the murders, I just didn't know how exactly.*SPOILER-ENDED* I figured a few major things out that pertained to the murders, I am not sure if the reader was supposed to know early on, but if so Shan did a great job.
Being more disappointed with how the content went in the book, I still liked the book more than not. The beginning and the end where terrific, especially the end. I can't wait to read the third book, I honestly have not a clue what Shan has done I haven't read the summary yet. I recommend this book to be read, and I would love to own this book as well. I am a huge fan of Shan's and I hope I am not completely upset with this last book. Even with being marked as a 'adult' book I think teenagers could really get into the trilogy. There is a sexual scene, but it is very PG and could have been extremely worse.
Rating: a lower 4 out of 5.
Page Count: 324 pages (hardcover)
Price: $19.99
Next Book: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Thank so much for reading!
~Jade
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