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A review by jasonfurman
Gun Machine by Warren Ellis
4.0
A compelling, creative premise for a police procedural--a cop stumbles on a shrine in a secure apartment in a Pearl St. tenement. The walls and floors are all covered with guns that, upon test firing a few of them, turn out to be linked to unsolved homicides.
In some ways it is a standard police procedural set in New York City. In other ways, it is a much darker, more surreal New York--every time he listens in to the police radio he hears about a string of brutality well beyond the magnitude/frequency served up the real city. And the villain of the book is responsible for hundreds of completely unsolved murders. And all of this is surrounded by "Manahhata"--the ancient Manhattan when it was populated, or co-populated, by Indians.
All of this makes for a fast-paced, interesting read. There is not much whodunnit suspense, you basically meet the character early on and his confederates are all pretty obvious too. It is more a question of whether and how he will be tracked down and stopped and what is the greater meaning of the "Gun Machine" he is building.
In some ways it is a standard police procedural set in New York City. In other ways, it is a much darker, more surreal New York--every time he listens in to the police radio he hears about a string of brutality well beyond the magnitude/frequency served up the real city. And the villain of the book is responsible for hundreds of completely unsolved murders. And all of this is surrounded by "Manahhata"--the ancient Manhattan when it was populated, or co-populated, by Indians.
All of this makes for a fast-paced, interesting read. There is not much whodunnit suspense, you basically meet the character early on and his confederates are all pretty obvious too. It is more a question of whether and how he will be tracked down and stopped and what is the greater meaning of the "Gun Machine" he is building.