Man, as a kid I really dug those Choose Your Own Adventure books. You know the ones that were written in the second person and opened by stringing together awkward bits of exposition before plunging you into the story: “You are the favorite child of a former sideshow attraction and an investment banker with a passion for all things equestrian. You love grilled cheese sandwiches and nature walks. When you woke up this morning you never would have guessed that your pet salamander was actually an alien from another galaxy!” Then they’d stop the action every couple of pages and offer “you” a choice: “If you decide to trust the wild-eyed scientist and swallow the potion, turn to page 47. If you decide to eviscerate the quack with your toothbrush and run like hell, turn to page 136.” They let you feel like you had some power, some influence over the events of your life, and that if you were only sharp and wiley enough, you could survive anything. And there was the real appeal – there were at least as many possible endings where you perished as there were with everything working out alright (though I seem to recall an unlikely and disproportionate amount of being eaten by tigers or falling into the mouths of active volcanoes) – there were consequences to the “wrong choice”.
So, it’s no wonder I was hooked by the beginning of Daniel O’Malley’s debut novel, The Rook – a letter addressed to ‘You’ and signed ‘Me’ informing the amnesiac reader that her name is Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) Thomas, but that she is encouraged to use the ATM and identity cards bearing a different name to get somewhere safe before opening the second letter. It does nothing to explain to her why she’s standing in a circle of dead bodies.
But the second letter… the second letter ends with a choice – To start a new life with a new identity in a new country, take the key to lockbox number one and Godspeed. To re-enter the life of Myfanwy Thomas, find out why you have no memory, why there are many people trying to kill you and figure out who among your colleagues has betrayed you, take the key to lockbox number two.
If I have to tell you which choice is made, then you need to loosen up and learn to embrace reckless abandon through fiction. You may want to start with the Choose Your Own Adventure Series. But if you’re with me, The Rook’s reveals are plenty, consistently detailed and weird. Turns out Myfanwy holds the rank of Rook in The Checquy Group a centuries-old, super-secret agency protecting the world from hostile supernatural forces. She even possesses some supernatural abilities of her own – though her greatest personal strength is in administration.
If you're thinking that it all sounds a lot like Charles Stross's Laundry Files Series, well I'm not going to disagree, but I'm not going to hold that against it either. I think there's room in this dimension and the next for another 'bureaucracy trumps all' paranormal mystery series. Part X-Files, part X-Men and part Jason Bourne lost inside a Dilbert strip, The Rook unfolds in a series of humorous, ghastly and never-saw-it-coming twists and hard left turns that ratchet the tension and keep the action rolling along at a nice pace. Rooting out the mole, restoring her life and saving the world will require near super-powers in scenario-projecting and uncanny letter-writing skills.
Looking forward to another from O'Malley.
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
