I finished (finishing, actually, I'm about 20 pages away) China Mieville's "The City and the City," the first – as far as I know – police procedural I've ever read. It was super fun and the plot hooked me, a non-reader, extremely quickly, but now I have a problem, I can't tell if I liked Mieville's weird fiction or police procedurals.
On one hand, I loved the many scenes where Borlu struggles to gather evidence and thinks through the case he's working on, the way the air is described, the scenery, the atmosphere. It felt very modern noir and very relatable, in a way. I'm a law student, so of course I liked the procedures, and the bureaucracy described. But I also really liked the concept of the twin cities and the weird separation. I liked the way Mieville described them, and how normal they felt after understanding what the terms meant.
So now I can't tell if I want to read more of what Mieville has written, if I want to read more police procedurals. or if I want to read noir/police stories with a supernatural twist. In doubt, I'd kindly ask for recommendations for all three: other Mieville works, police procedurals and supernatural/paranormal/weird police stories.
Thanks!
by Kayabiko