Night Call

A rogue robot is terrorizing the dark underbelly of 1930s Manhattan. Can detective Elias Roche and his new Automatic partner track it down?

The year is 1933. Even in a world with free energy, robot labour, and megacorporations, nothing could stop the collapse of the American Dream. As the world-spanning Great Depression rages on, the remaining New York?based mafias clash with police for control of the broken city. Elias Roche, former police officer turned Mafia enforcer, works to maintain a tenuous peace between the two parties.

Accustomed to settling disputes with the business end of a gun, Roche must expand his repertoire after a violent murder is covered up by the FBI. With the Mafia insisting they?re innocent of the crime and the police powerless to help, Roche and his new Automatic partner, Allen, must root out those responsible before the situation sparks a war in the city streets.

FINALIST FOR THE 2021 RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE

AUTHOR

Brenden Carlson

Brenden Carlson is a chemist and freelance writer. His debut novel and the first in the Walking Shadows Series, Night Call, released in 2020. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Reviews

[A] dazzling little debut novel… Carlson wonderfully creates a world that is instantly recognizable but is still populated with a new landscape filled with people we recognize and understand. This writer is definitely one to watch.
– Globe and Mail

Carlson does a good job populating his gritty, split-level world with dodgy mobsters, deadly dames, and killer machines
– Publishers Weekly

A fascinating reality, and the glimpses of the world Carlson gives us through Roche makes for an intriguing tale, delivering a new spin on familiar territory.