Scan barcode
A review by caitcoy
The Coldest City by Antony Johnston
2.0
The Coldest City is a tense, spy thriller set in Cold War era Berlin right as the Berlin Wall comes down. an undercover MI6 agent carrying an incredibly important document is killed during a riot and since that document contains the name of every single spy in Berlin, MI6 is determined to get their hands on it. To that end, they send in veteran agent Lorraine Broughton to figure out who killed him and to get her hands on that list at all costs. Lorraine must navigate a world of double and triple agents, Western and Communist governments and many more dangers to get to her goal but she is not a woman used to failure.
The Coldest City is a bit difficult to rate. Particularly at the beginning, the pacing of the story is tense and it's impossible to know who's really out to help Lorraine and who just wants to gain her trust in order to remove her from the picture. The minimalist style of Sam Hart's illustration does a fantastic job of using light and shadow to create an aura of mystery, cold and intense danger that immediately drew me in. Unfortunately, that same style made the last half of the book confusing as hell. The story relies upon remembering which character is which, a task made much more difficult by the lack of detail in the artwork. It took reading the ending several times to get even a vague idea of what the hell happened. The story reminded me very much of one of my favorite movies, so much so that I think naming the movie counts as a spoiler since you'll be expecting that twist. The story is well written but I definitely got frustrated with the handling of the ending because the confusion of it made it hard to feel satisfied at the end. The fact that I read Velvet on the same evening probably didn't help since I enjoyed that story significantly more.
Overall, Coldest City is worth reading and the mood of it is skillfully done in both writing and illustrations but I wouldn't count it as a personal favorite.
The Coldest City is a bit difficult to rate. Particularly at the beginning, the pacing of the story is tense and it's impossible to know who's really out to help Lorraine and who just wants to gain her trust in order to remove her from the picture. The minimalist style of Sam Hart's illustration does a fantastic job of using light and shadow to create an aura of mystery, cold and intense danger that immediately drew me in. Unfortunately, that same style made the last half of the book confusing as hell. The story relies upon remembering which character is which, a task made much more difficult by the lack of detail in the artwork. It took reading the ending several times to get even a vague idea of what the hell happened. The story reminded me very much of one of my favorite movies
Spoiler
The Usual SuspectsOverall, Coldest City is worth reading and the mood of it is skillfully done in both writing and illustrations but I wouldn't count it as a personal favorite.