Just Finished Reading: The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (FP: 2010)

It all started simply enough with just another body in the canal. Not exactly an unusual occurrence in that part of town during the early morning shift. As it was close enough to the Industrial district they called in Company Investigator Cyril Hayes – just in case the floater turned out to be another Union guy. There had been quite a few Union guys showing up dead lately as the not so secret conflict between the McNaughton Corporation and the Union heated up. But there was little that Hayes could do. He was much better with the living than the dead. His talent (or his curse depending on your viewpoint) was getting inside the heads of suspects and, within a few hours, becoming their best pals and being allowed into their darkest secret places. He wasn’t really an addict or a drunk though. The alcohol and the opium he used with increasing frequency was just to deaden the voices and the memories, some his own some not, that threatened to push him over the edge. But these days Hayes is operating under a black cloud because an important member of the Corporation he was supposed to be gently questioning to test their loyalty decided to see if he could fly out of a particularly high building. Well, he couldn’t. To keep him in line and to keep tabs on him the Corporation has assigned him a minder, an assistant, a jailer all wrapped up in a keen young woman trying to prove herself to her new employer. As she follows Hayes and reports back on his investigation it becomes obvious that something deeply mysterious is happening at the very heart of McNaughton – much more than the invention of strange machines that have transformed the world, much more than bizarre deaths and even more bizarre ‘sightings’ across the city, much more than the strange whisperings in the night and in the dark places under the city streets. Something is not quite right and Hayes is determined to get to the bottom of things – no matter the consequences for himself or his very powerful employers.

This was a very, very strange book. For over half way I had no real idea what was going on – in a good way. The tone was Noir with an interesting Steampunk overlay (mostly because of the Zeppelins). I had lots of theories to explain the strange happenings and often equally strange executives. One by one I had to abandon them to home in on an explanation – only to be proven wrong. The end, when it came, was odd, interesting and rather intriguing – if somewhat (though only somewhat) of a let-down maybe because it simply wasn’t what I was expecting. The writing was excellent though. Hayes was a great character and the environment he inhabited well drawn being both familiar and hauntingly strange. It certainly had me gripped and continually turning pages to find out exactly what the hell was going on! Although a little overblown in places and, from time to time, a bit too clever for its own good this was still a good strong read that kept me wondering and pondering for most of its 454 pages. Recommended to anyone wanting something very different indeed.