Equinox by David Towsey

This book had such potential for me, but I ended up being a bit disappointed by it. It is about a world in which two people share the same body; in our case we are following Christophor, who knows only the night, and Aleksander, his ‘day-brother’. Christophor is a ‘Special Inspector’ who is tasked with finding the perpetrator of some terrible supernatural crimes in a small village far from the capital. It is detective story, folk horror and fantasy all rolled into one, this book. I found the writing and atmosphere to be somehow compelling. It had its clunky moments but in general I was taken in my Towsey’s world. Of course, being me, I would have liked to see more of what it means to share a body, to only ever experience the night-time, how the world’s structures differ from ours to accommodate this on a more existential level, but I don’t think that was the point of this book and that’s fair enough. In general I thought the world-building was nicely done with a light touch so it didn’t feel like there were too many info-dumps. Ultimately though, after a strong atmospheric start, the book began to drag, especially in the second half and the ending was rushed and chaotic. I’d like to see what Towsey publishes next as I felt he really gripped me in the first half and perhaps the next novel might be better in its pacing and conclusion, which are two of the most difficult things with a novel I feel.