Book Review - C.L. Polk's Even Though I Knew the End
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: November 8th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
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Helen Brandt would do anything for those she loves. She literally gave her soul and lost the life she knew to save her brother. Now her time is up. Ten years for a life doesn't seem like too bad a deal until those ten years are up. She never knew she'd forge a new life in Chicago as a private detective and part-time diviner. She never knew Edith would walk into her life and make every second precious. And as Helen sets about doing a job for Marlowe at twice her usual fee she can't help but think she'd rather be home with Edith. Though Marlowe is the perfect client, always knows what she wants, always knows how to intrigue Helen, always pays on time though heaven knows where her money comes from, as she is always living in the lap of luxury at the Palmer House hotel. And she has one hell of a job for Helen. The photos and augury in the alleyway keeping her away from Edith was just to wet Helen's appetite. The girl murdered there, Kelly McIntyre, is just the latest victim of the murderer dubbed the White City Vampire and Marlowe wants that killer brought to her. But Helen's time left on Earth is short so she turns down the job. Which is when Marlowe throws a wrench in Helen's carefully orchestrated death; what if she could get Helen her soul back? All Helen has to do is uncover the killer and she can live out her long life with Edith. The deal seems too good to be true. Which it probably is. But it's not like Helen has anything left to lose except a lifetime with Edith. But Marlowe did warn her it would be dangerous, and soon the divine and the damned are after her as she becomes the target of the White City Vampire. How could they know she's on the case? What's more the Brotherhood who excommunicated her for bringing back her brother are on the case too. If only she had an ace up her sleeve... But sadly she doesn't, but Edith might...
If I had to choose between noir and fantasy, I'll be honest, I'd most likely choose fantasy. And yet noir and fantasy merge together beautifully. I often try to think about what makes certain genres mesh together well, certain time periods just beg to have that little something more. They're usually times of great change and upheaval when you can see the cracks in the world and out of those cracks comes something magical, something different. The forties are one such time. World War II changed everything and it makes sense that along with the evil that was stirred up, so were other forces both demonic and angelic. And with the heavenly hosts I couldn't help think about how much I love the television show Lucifer. While the main framing device is the devil does a procedural, the show did so much more, especially during the noir episode "It Never Ends Well for the Chicken." This episode showed these two genres perfectly blending together and I never thought I would see that again, and then I picked up Even Though I Knew the End. I adore this world that C.L. Polk has created. There's this wonderful merging of noir and a unique magical system that is somehow, at it's bones, just so Chicago. As someone who has spent a fair amount of my life visiting Chicago they perfectly captured that sense of place. I was in a place I loved but in an era that my grandparents would have known. And don't get me started on the crime scene photography with magic aspect, that was a bullseye. This is so unique and original but at the same time it was reminiscent of things I'd forgotten I'd loved, from Who Framed Roger Rabbit to The Exorcist to H.H. Holmes, immortalized in Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City. And while this book is wonderful and perfect and complete, I want more stories set in this world! A world that is made all the more perfect by Helen and Edith's love. Helen really would do anything for those she loves and that just about breaks my heart.
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