Finch ~Jeff Vandermeer

–published 2009
–Underland Press
–334 pages
–Nominated for 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novel
–4/5 stars

Imagine a decaying, fungus-ridden seaport where humanity lives in varying degrees of subservience to sentient fungal-based creatures whose descriptions could easily be the stuff of nightmares. A wet, moldy, drab and dismal place. Not exactly an atmosphere that one would call home, but that is exactly what the city of Ambergris is to detective John Finch, who finds himself wrapped up in a seemingly impossible case when a mysterious human and a virtually unstoppable gray cap are found murdered in a run-down apartment. The case becomes even more mysterious when it appears that the cause of death just couldn’t be possible.

Finch is Jeff Vandermeer’s third stand alone novel in the Ambergris Cycle. The buzz surrounding the book, its awesome cover, and the recent Nebula nomination in the Best Novel category…combined with a strong urge to read some detective fiction after gorging myself on science fiction for the past two months…meant that I found myself in the local Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago, picking up a copy. I went home that afternoon and immediately started reading, and what I found was a unique and imaginative world in which Vandermeer unveils a solid, page-turning noir detective adventure.

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