The Madmen's City by Cady Vance

The Madmen's City
Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Gwen Kane wants one thing in life: to follow in her dad's footsteps and become the best vigilante Towton City has ever seen. She just never imagined she'd have to prove herself by saving her dad's life. As he sits on death row for a murder he didn't commit, Gwen's desperate to do whatever it takes to find the true culprit and clear his name. She just has two problems:

1. She can't do it alone, and her only option for help is her rival, Silas Snow. But with his crazy good looks and brutal tactics, he's just as dangerous as the thugs themselves.

2. The execution date is mere days away. If she doesn't get to the bottom of this--and quick--her dad will die.

She has no choice but to trust Silas, but is he helping her uncover the truth--or is he helping to hide it?

Review:

*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Overall I really enjoyed The Madmen's City. It was a fun noir style book. It is like a dark super hero, Batman type story. I can just see Towton as a similar city to Gotham. I loved that aspect of it. 

Towton is a dark, gritty, corrupt city. There are two different families ruling different parts of the city. They have their hands in everyones pockets. The cops are corrupt and the ruling families can get away with anything. There are few people who are actively working to try and keep the city safe. Gwen is learning from her father, the vigilante known as Phantom. Phantom also works with Ethos, the other masked vigilante. While Phantom catches the bad guys and turns them over to the cops (only to have them be set free again usually), Phantom kills the bad guys and doesn't think twice about it. After all why capture them to have them be set loose to kill more innocent people? I understand why he does what he does and in his place I might do the same. 

Everything is going great, Phantom and Ethos sharing patrolling the city. Only one night Phantom gets arrested for murder, a murder Ethos committed. Someone is setting up Phanton and Gwen is determined to figure out who and save her dad. 

When I started writing this up I re-read the synopsis and thought Gwen is 17? Really? She seems much younger. While reading I kept thinking she should be annoying me, but she was written in a way that was fun instead of annoying. She seems really young and not the smartest person. Well it is that she really just rushes head long into situations without thinking about them too much. She doesn't have a lot of patients and she sees everything in very black and white. She really just acted like a kid who would be upset if she didn't get her own way. Also some of her thought processes I didn't quite get. She doesn't like Ethos/Silas because he kills people. She says at one time that she would never ever kill anyone (so then I kept waiting for that to happen. It was near the beginning of the book that she said that so it was just like yep, that will happen eventually), but she is on board with the death penalty. Apparently she can't kill anyone, but the cops can. I just seemed odd to me especially since a lot of the cops are corrupt so...

Anyways in order for Gwen to figure out who is setting up her dad and save him from jail she has to work with Silas. Silas who was so sweet, who obviously likes Gwen, but who would be hurt by her mean words she would spew without thinking. Sometimes I thought I don't even know why he likes her, but I liked him. I got him. He was out doing something and he is good at it. Yes he kills people, but only bad people. 

"Listen to m, Gwen. Not everything falls into neat, little boxes of right and wrong. I draw the lines too tight, but so do you."

He does what he has to to try and keep his city safe. Reading him was heartbreaking at times. Gwen is so mean, cuts him so deep, and she doesn't even realize it. There are also some friends and family to deal with, some good, some bad, and it was just a lot of fun to read.

So why is it not rated higher? Well it was a good four plus stars most of the way through until the end. I was reading and thought oh, this must be the first book in what will be a series. I only have a few minutes left and there is no way to wrap everything up in that time. Only that is what the author does. The story gets wrapped up all well, there we go everything is sunshine and rainbows now. It didn't make sense. It didn't work. There is no way what happened in two pages stopped all the badness from happening anymore and made everything great. Also Gwen suddenly likes Silas and that felt like it came out of left field. I didn't see her actually coming around to him that much until the rush at the end to fit it in. So I was loving the story, but the end was way too rushed. Still a good read, but know that the end is a bit rushed. 

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Available on 

Amazon * Amazon.de * Goodreads