In this near-future thriller, Inspector Ross Carver struggles to discern what happened after he is drugged and removed from a crime scene by six FBI agents.
...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.
