The Book With No Name by n/a Anonymous (1-Jun-2007) Paperback

I love the cover of this book and have to admit that that was what attracted me to it, even after reading the blurb and having it described as "Tarantino meets The Da Vinci Code", both of which I have liked.

I have to admit that the comparison to Tarantino is apt as the text is littered with expletives and the violence is pretty nasty although nothing I couldn't handle. The book also has a lot of characters, the stories of whom are all related by our omniscient narrator and we switch between them, chapter to chapter; their relationships to each other is one of the things that unfolds in the book. The parallel to Dan Brown I would question as I did not find the plot as compelling although the book rattled away at a fair old rate with many twists and turns, and is solid.

The novel is set in Santa Mondega, a fictional city where an inordinate amount of the world's lowlifes have chosen to reside, some of them with a suspected supernatural bent. It opens with a scene in the Tapioca, the bar owned by Sanchez, one of the key characters in the book and in this scene, we are introduced to the Bourbon Kid, the infamous mass killer of hundreds on the dark night of a lunar eclipse. The action shifts to five years later when another eclipse is expected and the prospect of the Bourbon Kid returning to wreak more carnage on the city is in the minds of many. No-one knows who he is or where he came from.

At the same time, monks Kyle and Peto are being sent to retrieve a stone which has been stolen from their island sanctuary before it can be used in Santa Mondega at the time of the eclipse. Its purpose is not clear but much is made of its potential to cause something catastrophic if it is not found in time.

Other central characters are: Miles Jenson, supernatural detective who is charged with investigating some horrendous murders along with a lesser respected detective, Somers, who is obsessed with the Bourbon Kid; a woman called Jessica who emerges from a five year long coma with amnesia; numerous guns for hire including a man called Elvis, and vampires.

Mayhem ensues but it ends satisfyingly with a suggestion of a sequel. For a début, it is well orchestrated.