​“Set in the near future, Addict combines the engrossing, tenebrous elements of 1930s noir crime fiction with the spectacle and possibility of science fiction.”
​– Extract from my review of Book 1 in this series.


I wanted to read LV48 as soon as its release was announced. Not only was it written by Matt Doyle, a highly active and positive member of the online LGBTQIA+ community, but the title was clearly a nod to Aliens – which happens to be on of my favourite movies.

This is the third book in the Cassie Tam series, a collection of futuristic crime noir stories set in the ever-fascinating city of New Hopeland. Manipulated and controlled by a complex criminal network, Doyle continues to work wonders as he explores New Hopeland’s shadowy underworld. It would be difficult to understand the intricacies of the plot without having read the first two, and so I hope readers pick up ‘Addict’ and ‘The Fox, the Dog, and the King’ before delving into LV48. That said, the author has done well to guide readers back into the city’s inner-circle.

This story is—much to my delight—a little lighter on Cassie’s internal monologue and heavier on dialogue and action. The scenes in set in the hospital were particularly exciting; a well-written climax indeed. There are some vague hints about Cassie’s past but, on the whole, characterisation stagnates a little in this instalment. This was fine though, because the focus was more to do with Fuerza’s tightening (or, perhaps, loosening) grip of the city. Cassie’s romance with Lori bookends the mystery plot, as it did with Book 2, acting as a soft form of cushioning for the reader. Given Hanson is a favourite of mine, I was excited to see her appear in more scenes (though, of course, I wanted to see her get a girlfriend). Doyle continues to provide imaginative and intricate detail regarding the operation of technology in his fictional world. In this case, he has concocted a rather magnificent exoskeleton used by the antagonist/s to attack their victims.
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This series is palatable and well-executed on the whole. If you like old-school crime fiction (think Bogart or Ford) but with lesbians, mechanical vampires, and psychedelic light shows, then this is the book for you.

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​Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Word Count: 58000
Sex Content: N/A
Orientation: Lesbian
Identity: Cisgender
Warnings: Depictions of graphic violence and mention of dogfights

​Reviewed by Rebecca

​Having read the first in this series, I was eager to get my hands on the second. The combination of noir and a not-too-distant-future setting remains intriguing. I'm also always happy to see women at the forefront of genre fiction, an area where there's still a lot of ground to cover in terms of diversity.

One of the strongest elements of the Cassie Tam Files is the development of Cassie's environment in both tangible and intangible terms. Doyle continues to expand New Hopeland, a city that grows and unfolds as a character in its own right. 

The city is caught between its industrial roots and a corporation-driven, technological future. As a past-meets-present hybrid (much like Cassie herself, who shares a sympathetic and symbiotic relationship with the city), New Hopeland is the perfect breeding ground for a complex criminal underworld; an underworld writhing with corruption and decay. But much like weeds that break through the foundations of an ancient building, that decay and destruction has become necessary to maintain the integrity of New Hopeland. The challenge for Cassie? To know which criminals hold New Hopeland together, and which threaten to tear the place apart. 

There's a sense of the anachronistic in The Fox, the Dog, and the King which, to me, works very well. Like today, there's a gap between what is possible with technology, and what people feel comfortable doing with it. Cassie seems a little behind-with-the-times, so to speak, but I would say most of today's population is, too. I own an iPhone, but I doubt I explore more than 10% of its capabilities. This aspect of her characterisation helps keep her grounded, likeable, and believable.

This book had, I believe, a better balance between movement and stagnation. I am not usually a reader of crime fiction, so in any detective story, I find it a challenge to follow extensive passages that explore the sleuth's inner thoughts and/or solo investigations into data and documents. This isn't a criticism of either of Doyle's books, but rather a comment on my own reading tastes and less-than-fantastic ability to follow technical or super-specific, complex descriptions. It's the same problem I have when I read 'hard' scifi. For readers who, like me, aren't always patient with crime fiction, you'll find this book more easy-going than Book 1 in the series. 

The F/F relationship between Cassie and Lori continues to unfurl itself in soft increments. Lori features quite a lot in the early chapters of the book but, as the case heats up, becomes a background character -- though she's never far from Cassie's thoughts. In terms of the other characters, I quite enjoyed Hanson and I hope we get to see more of her in the books to come. 

On the whole, this is another effectively constructed futuristic noir crime fiction from Matt Doyle. I love stories with a living, evolving setting and on that count, TFTFATK certainly delivers.

​You can purchase an EPUB or MOBI from the publisher's website, here. There are some brilliant discount codes available through the NineStar Press newsletter, too. If you prefer Amazon, click here.

Author: Matt Doyle
Release Date: May 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-947139-03-9
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Word Count: 56000
Sex Content: N/A
Orientation: Lesbian
Identity: Cisgender

​RATING: 4.5 stars

When I was studying English Extension as a Year 12 student, we spent the year focused on a genre study of crime fiction. One of our set texts was Marele Day's The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender, a gritty urban crime fiction written in a very traditional style, but with a unique (for the time) female protagonist. The reason I bring this up, is that I couldn't help thinking about that book quite a lot whilst I was reading ADDICT. You need to ignore the GoodReads ratings of Day's book, because it's been skewed heavily by resentful teenagers who were tired of the book after studying it. It's dated now (over 30 years later), but Harry Lavender infused pre-WWII crime fiction conventions with fresh, contemporary elements of gender, as well as a real sense of place, with the city of Sydney treated as a character in its own right.

Matt Doyle's ADDICT, though a rather different beast from Harry Lavender, is intelligent and fresh in much the same way Day's book was in the late 80s. A crime is committed and, of course, as time goes on, our detective is led through a series of twists and turns to finally lead her to a thrilling conclusion, where all the puzzle pieces fall into place - a satisfying conclusion is provided, as you'd expect from a detective story.

Set in the near future, Addict combines the engrossing, tenebrous elements of 1930s noir crime fiction with the spectacle and possibility of science fiction. Cassie Tam is, in many ways, a traditional sleuth protagonist, right down to the glock, the dingy apartment, and the social isolation. But Cassie also has a metallic gargoyle as her security guard, and has to delve into the nefarious world of technology addiction as a means to solve the case at the heart of the story. Her client also happens to be a Tech Shifter, someone who uses specially designed machinery to transform into an animal as a form of escapism. Cool, right?

The characters are engaging and memorable, slowly building relationships and inviting us into their psyches. Given this is the first story of a series, the characterisation has been handled well. There's a sweet romance developing by the end of the book, but it hasn't been explored so much as to make subsequent books almost pointless, Doyle has left space to move with the romance -- a wise move, I think!

Setting and atmosphere are amongst the strongest elements of ADDICT. By the end of the novel, I felt connected to the city of New Hopeland. I understood its history, its evolution, and its almost fetishist underbelly, where even crime is driven by zealotry. I'd have no reservations recommending this book!

​You can buy an ecopy here, and a paperback here.