...a grim and gripping tale of well-earned paranoia … Moore blends his story’s futuristic elements with more traditional tricks of the genre … The book’s tone is Chandleresque, the conspiracy worrying Carver and Jenner expands to Pynchonean proportions, and the physical ick they encounter might have oozed out of a Cronenberg movie. But on the whole, I’ll wager, The Night Market and its predecessors, The Poison Artist and The Dark Room, are like nothing you’ve ever read.
Moore’s latest novel is a noirish, moody mystery shrouded with conspiracies that would make any X-Files fan rejoice … Carver, with Mia’s help, sets off to find out what happened during his blackout. In typical gumshoe fashion, Carver follows one lead to the next and slowly begins piecing together a trail of people, places and events, ultimately leading to the discovery of a staggering conspiracy. Moore expertly paints a bleak cityscape for our hero, and in this world, no one can be trusted, and dangerous secrets are just waiting to be uncovered.
Carver’s a semi-grizzled veteran detective of a kind we’ve seen before in these kinds of stories—tight with his words, close with his feelings—but he’s not Philip Marlowe in an updated suit … We look over Carver’s shoulder for the entire narrative, so by default, he’s the best-developed character. Except for Mia, the rest of the cast doesn’t get the same level of nuance, and a few days after you finish the book, you’ll probably struggle to remember their names, far less their personalities … The Night Market is good, sturdy Chandleresque noir with a well-realized plot, a hero who’s reasonably easy to get along with, and enough atmosphere to unspool the movie satisfyingly in your head.
...as upsetting and revealing a book as you are likely to read in this or any year … Moore creates a fascinating scenario whereby the reader knows more about the protagonist than he himself is aware of. Carver painstakingly investigates what happened to him, and while he does so, the reader learns in increments that the setting of the novel is San Francisco in a (somewhat) foreseeable and dystopian future. Moore does not tell but shows, in a number of subtle ways — the prevalence of electric vehicles, weather changes, and a new method of advertising — and one near the end that not only thinly ties The Night Market in with its predecessors, but also measures how far in the future the book is actually set.
A sharp and scary near-future thriller that delivers a dark message about society’s love affair with technology … There are no easy answers at the culmination of Moore’s unsettling, stylish noir, the third in a loosely connected trilogy set in San Francisco. Good thing Carver isn’t the type to give in or give up. The not-quite-nihilistic yet still utterly shocking revelations in the third act are the stuff of nightmares.
Moore sets this outstanding SF noir in a near-future San Francisco, where ocean current changes have made the rain nearly continuous, electric cars prowl the streets, and disposable LED postcard ads seduce the citizenry … Moore smoothly fills Carver’s quest for the truth with equal parts hidden menace and outright strangeness. This mystery feels like Blade Runner as if it were written by Charles De Lint or Neil Gaiman.
