Review: The Real Thing
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2013
Cutter's Deal, by Julie Morrigan, is a bad dream of a book.  I mean that in the best way possible.  It is a dark, tragic story from a universe where nothing and nobody can be trusted, not even one's self; where the value of a life is determined solely by what another can reap off it; where a glimmer of hope is maintained despite the all-but-certain knowledge that it will prove futile; where evil is not a concept, but an all-encompassing and infusive spell that binds everything together.The author does a fantastic job of shifting viewpoints, through brisk first-person chapters that feel as intimate as mouth-to-ear confessions.  The characterization is superb.  It is the cast, in fact, with their varying strengths and weaknesses, who drive this tale.Morrigan doesn't need a bag of tricks.  She is a first-rate storyteller.  You don't notice how adept she is because you're riveted to what is happening.  I like how she just sets this up and lets it play to its true and inevitable conclusion.  Throughout the book, I had a growing sense of unease, of fate closing in on the protagonists--but still couldn't turn the pages fast enough.I am a lifelone fan of Noir.  Too often, I think, the label is misused as a blanket term for all things related to crime.  Julie Morrigan not only gets it, but writes Noir as finely as anyone since the genre's inception.