Book Review: Breach of Peace

Blurb:

An imperial family is found butchered. Officers of God are called to investigate. Evidence points to a rebel group trying to seed fear into the very heart of the empire itself. Inspector Khlid takes the case and begins a harrowing hunt for those responsible. But when a larger conspiracy comes to light, will Inspector Khlid be able to trust those working within her own precinct?

Overall impression

Breach of Peace is a dark fantasy book by Daniel Greene, who runs a successful YouTube channel. He makes videos about all things fantasy. I watched one of his videos where he breaks down how much money he made from his first two novels. He states in his video that his YouTube platform contributed a lot to how many books he sold. Still, I figured his books had to have merit on their own as well, so I decided to check them out.

I was surprised by how much I liked this book! He has the audiobooks for them both up for free on YouTube, so I listened to a good bit of Breach of Peace before I bought the ebook. I went into the audiobook before reading the blurb or knowing anything about it other than the fact that it was a mystery/fantasy, so the horror elements really surprised me. (Though in hindsight I should’ve known it was on the darker side from the snippet he shared in the video I watched.)

Characters

I enjoyed Khlid as a character. She felt like a real person to me and reacted to things like a real person, not just a stereotypical “tough cop” character.

Chapman was the other standout character to me. He’s not really liked by the other characters, which made the scenes from his perspective really interesting.

Writing

I enjoyed the writing in this book! It wasn’t flowery, by any means, but it wasn’t devoid of personality either. Here’s a snippet of description I really liked.

Checking over her shoulder, Khlid could barely see the light from the stairway. An eerie feeling that the cellar went on forever began to manifest in her mind. They would walk until the little doorway to light was no longer visible, and then it would be impossible to return. She found herself fighting an odd sense of vertigo – an instinctive terror that, were she to try to run back to safety, she would only encounter an infinite hallway of wine bottles.

Greene does a great job here of conveying what it would feel like to be in an unnaturally dark wine cellar, and it left me as a reader wondering what part of it was Khlid’s imagination running away with her, and what part of what a sign of something nefarious and supernatural.

Criticism

I think this book is very good for a debut! There were only two things I really took issue with.

One was the pacing. A big chunk of the book involves investigating a murder scene, and the other sections felt disproportionately short to me. The story also lags at points as the characters banter back and forth. I can’t say I know exactly how I would’ve done it differently, but I think things could have been tighter.

The other was the length! I get that it’s a novella, but I would think there’s enough story here for a novel. The pieces of worldbuilding we got were very interesting and hinted at so many things about their society (Why the mix of technology? Why is Samuel’s dark hair/appearance notable? What’s going on with this whole rebellion thing?) There was also space to show us even more of Khlid and Samuel. I did care about them and their relationship, but I definitely think more screen time would have pushed the emotional attachment more.

Who should read this book?

If you like corrupt societies, mysteries, and being unsettled (but not crazy scared), this book is for you! Is it the best book you’ll ever read in this genre? Probably not, but it’s a fun time.

Also: I found the end of this book to be absolutely fascinating! I won’t say anything more about it, because that’s obviously spoilers, but it definitely was enough to make me want to read the second one. It’s obvious that religion is going to be a huge theme of this series, which I always find interesting. I’ll definitely read the second one!