Francis Spufford

This is quite remarkable. Set in 1922 an alternate past, Cahokia is a city in a native American land that has become a state of the Union. In it, red, black & white live in reasonable harmony. There are some oddities of this state, in that there is a hereditary lord, with no actual power but significant sway over the people. The land is owned in common by the state, making it a different situation to the norm. The depiction of the city and its relationships between the sources of power is extremely well done.
Into this drops a corpse, being investigated by Phinn Drummond & Joe Barrow. Joe's mixed race, an orphan, not necessarily the smartest tool in the box, but during this, he comes out of his own shadow and develops into someone that you feel for and are egging on. The murder of Fred Hopper, a poor white clerk, is ritualistic; he appears to have been scarified in a style reminiscent of the Aztecs on top of the pyramidical top of the Land building, in which he worked. The rest of the book is divided into days and the events of the days that follow are narrated. We come to know Joe, his life story, how he has been the brute force for the brainy pal since childhood, how doesn't fit into this city, how he plays piano and jazz piano specifically like a magician and how he is torn between being a cop and being a musician. His story is set against that of riot and unrest in the city, instigated by external forces and the efforts of the ruling house to bring the situation under control. You feel that they are the underdogs in an ongoing war and so you hope that they persist in the face of the overwhelming odds. Their small patch of America has more spirit than the real one. Joe sits as the pivot between the big picture and the story of the individual, he gets swept into events that are not of his devising and takes actions that resonate across the city.
This started quite slowly for me, took several periods of concentrated reading to really get into it. The world building slows the detective story, but is essential to the whole and that is what makes it work, the murder and its cause without the world it is set it would be meaningless.… (more)

A man named Richard Smith arrives in New York City from England in the mid-18th century, with a bill from his creditors for a thousand pounds. Smith is instantly mysterious and intriguing to New York's high society, and to the reader. How has he come by all of this money, and what is he going to do with it? We get a lot of hints that he has a mysterious past, including his own attempts to hide his history from the people around him. He must be careful navigating the small-town culture of NYC, and has several run-ins with New Yorkers that only make him more mysterious.

This book is delightful. Smith remains an intriguing character to the very end. I had no idea where the book was going or what was going to happen next, and was constantly surprised by the turns of events. The writing is droll and witty and compulsively readable, the characters vivid and likeable.

On top of that, Spufford seems to have done a lot of research, and makes 18th-century New York feel very real. This isn't just a story that happens to be set in the 18th century - the time and place are pivotal to the book.… (more)