This book was so well written. The atmosphere of this city that once had magic but is now gone was just amazing. I’d read this book purely for the atmosphere. But the detective aspect of this book added a whole other level to it. This book was a ride and I was here for it the entire time!

“A good man is made through a lifetime of work. Great men are made by their monsters.”

The Wolf Among Us meets L.A. Noire in this new urban fantasy. Luke Arnold has delivered a well-written adventure, with an added dose of stylish noire presentation.
Fetch Phillips is a mercenary for hire with a colorful past. Running from one job to another, following whoever rings the bell. Fetch has a character introduction that’s funny, brutal, and mysterious in the best possible ways.

Set in a grimey place called Sunder city where a catastrophic event known as The Coda which lead to all magic to stop. To seize to exist. It lead to a good chunk of the city dead. The people went cold and hungry in their homes. Elves age quicker, vampires die faster, werewolves to become deformed, Dragons to fall from the sky. It's sobering, sad, and tense. Fetch is tasked to search for a missing vampire. Each clue and scenario Fetch is brought up against brings you to a new area of Sunder City. We experience many locations in a short amount of time. The pace is functional, simple, and satisfying.

It’s a story that is constantly moving. What Luke Arnold brings to the table is an injection of actual detective work. There were some slower flashback chapters but they are absolutely necessary for the story to evolve.

If this first book is any indication of the rest of the series, then Fetch’s adventure is set to provide an adventure every bit as memorable as the classic Big Bad Wolf.

Series Info/Source: I got this as an egalley through NetGalley.com. This is the first book in the Fetch Phillips series.

Story (3/5): I read the first 25% of this book and then stopped because I just didn’t care. This book felt like a lot of other urban fantasy books with male protagonists that I have read in the past. It has a Dresden Files or Repairman Jack vibe to it. This is mainly an investigative urban fantasy where Fetch is trying to solve the disappearance of a vampire.

Characters (3/5): Fetch is the only character that was wellish developed in the first 25% of the story. Fetch is your very typical UF male lead; scattered, barely making it, drinks too much with a sordid past. I didn’t really enjoy him and thought he was just too cookie-cutter. However, if you enjoy that sort of thing you may like this.

Setting (4/5): The setting and world-building is the most interesting part of this book. This is set in a sort of post-apocalyptic Earth where humans broke magic and now all the magical creatures are trying to get buy with the mess humanity has made. It’s very creative and interesting, but a bit scattered.

Writing Style (3/5): This was just a bit too messy for me. Fetch gets distracted a lot and the story wanders between telling you about the past and Fetch in the present. It’s a bit hard to follow. The whole thing is written in this kind of dark detective noir style with a lot of self-deprecating humor from Fetch.

Summary (3/5): Overall this is okay and I think those who are looking for more Dresden Files or Repairman Jack-like books will enjoy this. I personally just thought Fetch was too cookie-cutter male UF lead and I thought the story was too messy and hard to follow.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, I didn't love this book, but it has serious potential. It felt too detective-y. I think if it had focused more on the mystery and less on the detective side, I think it would have been better.

**I was provided an electronic ARC by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Luke Arnold, renowned actor, adds author to his repertoire with his debut fantasy novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City. Readers follow Fetch Phillips, man for hire, in a world where the magic is gone. Humans, elves, vampires, and all manner of other creatures are trying to make their way after the cataclysmic event of the Coda, which caused the magic to fade. For Fetch, that means finding a missing vampire for now.

Fetch is the man to blame, the man who always tries his best to do something right, the man who always comes up short. Fetch is inherently a morally grey character, and I'm a fan of angsty morally grey MCs. Readers get a lot of insight into Fetch via flashbacks and through his navigation of the obstacles in the story. Overall, I can say I like Fetch. He tries, poor dear.

Arnold is incredibly successful at world-building. The development of Sunder City and the various cultures associated with the creatures is definitely something special. The read was definitely atmospheric and I felt I had a strong understanding of Sunder and the sociopolitical climate in which it exists. Unfortunately, I was in the space of feeling Arnold's biggest strength in world-building also wound up detrimental in the end.

Arnold spent so much effort in building the world, so much effort in establishing the history, so much effort in establishing Fetch's past. It was well done, yes. However, if that was the story he wanted to tell, I wish he had simply started his novel with the events that brought about the Coda and we could have followed Fetch through that rather than having whole chapters of flashbacks. Instead, we got these information dumps and zero progress for the main introduced plotline of finding out what happened to the missing vampire. That plot was resolved within the last 15ish percent of the book, with little to no progress being made until then.

That being said, I'm excited about the potential for Sunder in the future. We've got our info dumping out of the way now; we know our world, our MC, and his past experiences. I'm eager to see how Arnold and Sunder move forward, particularly with the hints of development for installments in the series to come.

Overall, I feel Arnold had a strong debut novel, and I would not hesitate to read the next book in the series.

Oh my goodness was this book a surprise! I was not expecting to enjoy this one so much.

When I started reading this book, I was expecting a fictional city in our current world; an urban fantasy book. What I got was so much more! Arnold somehow blended aspects of high fantasy with urban fantasy. On top of that, his writing gave me a very film noir feeling to Fetch Phillips, our human P.I. as well the story and world as a whole. Part of that is the setting, this world that had magic and now doesn’t, is very gritty.

I will say that the only thing that I thought didn’t quite meet the bar was the actually mystery plot line. It could be that Arnold had to take up real estate to add enough history and info about the world and everything, which took away from the present plot line a little. My hope and guess is that he doesn’t have to add much more of the history or other info, leaving Arnold to have fun developing a really good mystery plot line.

Fetch Phillips has quite the background. He’s been a magical diplomat’s aide/ bodyguard, a soldier, for both the magical sector and the human sector, and he’s been labeled a traitor and thrown into magical prison. He grew up in a human only walled city after becoming an orphan of a magical creature massacre. He escaped and found himself in Sunder City, which at the time was a booming city. All of his experiences come together really well to create a compelling character in Fetch. I didn’t love him, but I didn’t hate him either and I think that was the point.

I can definitely see how all of these different aspects written together could end up being too much or confusing for some readers, but I loved it. I found that it gave enough uniqueness to the characters and story without trying too hard.

I was excited to read The Last Smile in Sunder City. But I had to stop reading halfway through. It felt a bit like the author was trying to get every detective book trope into one novel, and it just lost me with the gimmicky nature of it. I have been putting off reviewing it for a while, but ultimately I cannot give it more than a star.

I would first like to thank NetGalley and Orbit for providing an ERC in exchange for a review.

Having sat on this for far too long, I was finally able to scratch the itch that started the moment I read a blurb about this book. It was such a great read, and was very hard to put down at times. Resulting in a number of overly tired days at work the next day.
The main character, Fetch Phillips, was relatable in so many ways. I think most people can relate to feeling like their lives do nothing but mess up the lives of those around them, at one point or another in the course of their life. Although he doesn't see the value in himself, and is clearly filled with soul crushing guilt; he drives this story, and what a roadtrip it is. It's clear that he is a human(one of the few we meet) with a huge heart, empathetic, and would probably give you his last cigarette if asked. He is a man tortured by his past, yet lives with it and tries to go on with his life. For him, that means hanging out in his office, waiting for the next client to stumble in and partake of his abilities to do the job that no one else would do.

The story begins quickly, Fetch is employed by the guy that runs the school for the non human kids living in Sunder City. It's the first of it's kind, as it is populated by kids of all the previously magic peoples. I better back up and explain the world our anti hero Fetch lives in.

Up to about seven years ago, the world was filled with a wide variety of different types of magic folks, dwarves, vampires, fairy, one eyed ogres, werewolves etc.. The book covers the fascinating history of a few of them. Most live separately from the humans, having, you know, magic. And humans, having no magic, results in tension, and eventually war. As a result, the source of all magic is destroyed. Turning all magic people into mortals. Fetch indicates a lot guilt around this loss of magic and the ruination of a way of life for those who use it and are imbued with it. As the story progresses, you understand why.

Fetch is asked to find a missing professor, a former Vampire, and along the way we begin to understand his connection to the magic world and his day to day misery. The world and the characters are so well written and beautifully crafted. Sunder City, a place where everyone is trying to pick up after the "Coda" (the day the magic died) is a neapolitan of decaying life, and those trying to rebuild a new way of life. There are interesting little nooks, glowing with descriptive prose on almost every page of the book. The humor well placed, story pace is perfect.

I would highly recommend it, even though it wasnt exactly the book I was expecting and doesn't fall under any of my favorite genres, as a fan of dark fantasy, I "got" it, and am glad I had the opportunity to read it.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book will be available on February 25th.

This book is noir-fantasy at its finest. It has all the trademarks of a good, gritty noir, with a dash of the fantastical thrown in for good measure. A hard-boiled P.I with a penchant for getting drunk? Check. A tragic backstory? Check. A talent for stirring up trouble and making everyone mad? Double check.

Fetch is an ex-soldier in a war that was basically humans vs. all things magical. He’s not proud of what he did during the war, or who it turned him into. He’s now a semi-talented P.I., who will take pretty much any case, as long as it pays and he’s not working for a human.

At the beginning of the book, he is hired to find a missing vampire, dead or, um…alive (?). Less dead? I honestly don’t know how to word that. Huh. Moving on. In Sunder City, either state of being is equally likely. Of course, things are brought to light that certain parties prefer stay hidden, and chaos ensues.

Now, on to the setting. Sunder City is a slum, but what a slum! The amount of detail the author put into it is astounding. I could easily picture the entire city, could hear rain drizzling, and could smell the “breakfast” being served at a certain restaurant.

Another thing I loved about the book is Fetch’s internal dialogue. It’s so deliciously old-school detective. He was perfect, the setting was perfect, the storyline was perfect. Basically, the entire book was phenomenal. The only beef I have: I have to wait to see what happens in the next book.

This one would be perfect for fans of the Dresden Files or Breaking Lore. I can’t recommend this one enough.

Fetch Phillips is a familiar kind of detective. He drinks hard. He has no money. Most people want to punch him on sight. Above all, Fetch has a lot of past mistakes to atone for. Those mistakes are slowly revealed over the course of Luke Arnold’s wonderfully immersive novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City. But all that comes later. At the beginning of the novel, Fetch is hired to track down a missing vampire and he means to do his best in spite of his addictions, people trying to hit him, and a world that is collapsing in on itself due to the abrupt loss of magic that happened some years previously.

In the “present,” we watch Fetch talk to people who knew the missing vampire and dig up clues. The vampire is a well-respected teacher who, like the rest of his species, instantly aged and grew decrepit without magic to sustain him. Indeed, all of the other magical races are in similar straights. Fetch is only okay (physically at least) because he’s human. In a world without magic, humans are on the rise. It’s only through flashbacks that we find out why Fetch is so down on his own species—but I’m not going to give that away.

Fetch is a great character—this book is full of great characters—but what really attracted me to this story was the world that Arnold created. Actually, one could say that Arnold created two worlds. There’s the world the Fetch currently inhabits. Nothing except human-created machines work right. Everything magical is toast. Then there are the hints about the world before the magic went away. Fetch laments the beauty and wonder of that magical world. In the flashbacks, we see a young human who is in awe of what the elves and ogres and were-people and the fae and the rest can do. As I read, I was hoping that The Last Smile in Sunder City was building towards the restoration of magic. This part I will give away: this novel is the beginning of a series and the restoration of magic is not a simple thing that can be fixed in one book.

I inhaled The Last Smile in Sunder City. It’s so creative and so well done, with so much heart. I’m excited to recommend this book to other readers.

Fetch Phillips is a man for hire in Sunder City, that just happens to stumble on a job that should be pretty open and shut. Find a missing vampire, that also happens to be a much loved teacher at a new school where all people are together. In the world after the Coda this is a bit unusual but this should be pretty straight forward right, wrong. Fetch realizes very quickly that maybe this job is more than he bargained for.

This novel is the debut of Luke Arnold, who some may know from a little show called Black sails,. Who knew this guy was a fan of urban fantasy as well. This book contains all the usual suspects when it comes to the UF realms, you have vampires, werewolves, fae and many other things but theres one interesting change here, something called The Coda has happened and it has taken all of the magic out of the world. So what does that mean for the people of this book, well now vampires can go in the sun, but their famous teeth also fall out, werewolves get trapped in some kind of hybrid of man and wolf and dryads freeze into trees. Things are a mess and for some reason Fetch Phillips feels really responsible for the whole thing.

What I didnt like about this book:

Overall it wasnt a bad book, the one thing I felt like I didnt really gel with was that the book kind of wandered all over the place with the plot. In the notes and the interview in the back of the book Arnold mentions that he was trying to make an old school hard boiled detective novel, and while I get that there was so much of this book that just seemed almost counter intuitive to the overall plot. Even in the end when things sort of come together there were places where he spent a ton of time talking about something that really didnt have much to do with the story. There are a lot of flashbacks in this book to both explain Phillips sense of guilt as well his PTSD but some of them seemed like a bit much. I did enjoy the fact that they were told through his tattoos though.

What I did like about this book:

Arnold does a great job of building a new world with this book, by the end I did want to spend a bit more time here even if it maybe wasnt with Phillips himself as he wasnt a super likeable character overal, but the world and the things going on were interesting and I really want to know where they are going to go with the story in the future.

I also felt like Arnold did a great job of writing a character that wasnt meant to be your best friend, he had a lot of tragedy and a lot of mental issues most importantly his aforementioned PTSD.

Overall a decent first entry in an urban fantasy series. Overall these types of books do tend to take a couple to get the background out of the way and on to the real story.

3.5 stars rounded to 4 for the review

This story takes place in Sunder City, which is a city not so much unlike our own at one time or another. Well, kind of anyway. The world is peopled with all kinds of magical beings. Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, Banshee, Sirens, and so on, but the magic is gone. Humans killed it. So we see a city of magical beings learning to live without the magic that sustains them. Vampires are slowly dying. Banshee are mute. Werewolves are very much half human and half wolf. That sort of thing.

Fetch Phillips is a Man for Hire. He’s more or less a private detective. Or he does odd jobs. Whatever pays the bills, really. He’s pretty much at rock bottom, trying to atone for his part in the Coda, the event that destroyed the magic. He’s hired to find a Vampire who has gone missing, and as he investigates, he finds a whole bunch of shenanigans happening, and something that nobody can really explain.

This book is told in first person from Fetch’s point of view, but follows two timelines to tell the entire story. First and foremost, we have the story presently happening, where Fetch is looking into the disappearance of a teacher (who happens to be a Vampire) from a local school. The second is the story of Fetch. Where he comes from, and more or less how he ended up where he ended up at the time of the Coda.

I don’t always love it when present day story weaves with a past one in flashbacks, but I find that I didn’t mind so much here. It wasn’t confusing at all, and the narratives didn’t interrupt each other at very inopportune moments, as can happen with this sort of storytelling. I found that I was equally interested to see what happened in each side of the story, so that was very well done.

It was well written and always kept me interested in the story. I liked Fetch as a character and I wanted to see him succeed in his task. Seeing how other characters interacted with him, knowing who and what he is, was interesting. There were a couple of really interesting background characters I really liked. Especially one named Baxter.

All told, I quite liked it. This book has a host of interesting characters living in an interesting world, and I hope to explore more of it in the next volume!

As a fan of Jim Butcher, and Kim Harrison, this book was right up my alley - film noir-esque characters with their own aspirations and histories, a developing universe with enough just enough grime to make the bright spots shine even more, and a plot that while semi-linear, has enough twists to give you that "a-ha" moment when the protagonist puts it all together. Arnold did a great job fleshing out the world, leaving no doubt that this is a character and universe that he will continue exploring for years to come.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

When I read the synopsis for this book I was instantly intrigued. I tend to like the mixture of fantasy and mystery, but had also been disappointed in the past. Sadly, I felt like I was disappointed once again. 'The Last Smile in Sunder City' reminded me a bit too much of the Dresden Files, complete with a human male P.I. that takes cases. The two differences I saw was that Fetch - the P.I. in this case - was a lot more self deprecating but somehow overly confident, and that magic, while no longer a reality in this world, was known to all.

The one thing that I really liked about this book was that the world felt pretty damn real. Not in the sense that werewolves and elves exist, but that they all interacted with each other. It was a post magic world so every species was a lot more integrated than it used to. The missing person of this story, in which the mystery revolves around, was a vampire teacher who was in charge of children from all species. I also liked the flashbacks and how they were sprinkled in. At first I had no idea where they were headed, but it was soon clear that they would tell us what exactly this "Coda" was.

I did not like how this book was organized, however. The pacing was way off for me. There was no sense to the time skips within the same chapter. He'd be at his house then at the diner, then across town. And at one point a natural disaster strikes but the next day he's back at the diner. I was very confused about where some things took place. Was Sunder supposed to be a gigantic city like L.A.? Where it can flood on one half but the other be completely fine? I also didn't know where things were located and found descriptions sorely lacking. There were quite a few tropes as well, which made the book drag and seem repetitive, like something I'd read before.

I received a Copy through NetGalley for review.
I give this a 4.5.

I have to say this was a really interesting book. The writing style and descriptions, wit and dry, dark humor, caught me from page one. And when you add on the over the top complex world building. It was really impressive. The narration of the main character, Fetch Phillips jumped out at me from the first page. Anything that can make me laugh when the character is in a terrible situation is a plus.

The story is less adventure from point a-b- than of Fetch's journey to how he ended up at this point in time, and why he has just so much to feel terrible about. Because he's almost single handedly responsible for the state of the current world. Devoid of magic and all its main, magical inhabitants cut off from their source of both immortality and power. All because humans had to try to conquer it.

Set in a version of a world where humans would be if they depended on magic to run things for almost their entire existence, where science as we know it doesn't exist. While culture and everything was modern probably beyond our own point in time (yes I mean you the reader in reality), but all those things they depended on for living, for industry to get around, heat their homes disappears all at once.

And everyone magic and mortal who survived the end of power has to and is still- adjusting to it. It's set six yours later. After what they call The Coda. The narration jumps back and forth, between the before, and now. Let you see how as time when on how The Coda happened. And the role Fetch had to play in it. And the bleak reality in the after, and the hope that people cling to- to keep going.

I wish it had been just a little more plot driven, it's the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars, and believe me it would have easily earned it. But this felt more like a prequel to a bigger story. To Fetch possibly redeeming himself, just a little bit. In-between the drinking, accidental brawls and pain sticks wedged between his teeth. I'm actually looking forward to seeing where this goes next.

I really enjoyed this immensely.

The Last Smile in Sunder City is a fantastic tale of a world trying to survive a tumultuous change caused by one segment of its population, whose envy and selfishness disrupted its balance. Fetch Phillips is a 'man for hire' scraping by to do some good despite the bleakness surrounds his every day life. A seemingly simple case of finding a missing professor leads to so much more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tale, which had just enough exposition sprinkled throughout to create a 'used universe' feel. Its characters were well developed and the first person perspective enhanced the sense of urgency in its pacing. Fetch is an imperfect person, but one worth rooting for (even though he sometimes makes bad decisions).

I look forward to reading more about this world.

The Last Smile in Sunder City is about a a P.I. named Fetch, known troublemaker and drunk. After his world is depleted of magic and mythical creatures have to adapt to a new life, Fetch is left to pick up the pieces of his former life and the guilt of knowing he and the rest of the human race are to blame for so many lives ruined. When he's hired to find a missing teacher, a dying vampire, Fetch must come to terms with his guilt, the people he's let down and face an unknown enemy in order to find the vampire before it's too late.

The plot had a lot of potential, but the main character just wasn't that likable. Despite his smart mouth, he's a rather dull character that lacked any development throughout the story. The pace of the book was rather slow. The amount of metaphors and similes in this book was ridiculous and seriously took away from the writing. Rather than just explaining what the author meant in more detail, an overkill of comparisons were used instead. I docked a whole star for that alone. The book had potential, but it just wasn't for me and I don't think I'd bother with the sequel.

1950's private eye mixed with urban fantasy, The Last Smile in Sunder City is a wild ride from start to finish. Following the disappearance of magic, creature and magical beings must eek out a living while Fetch Philips, private detective, searches for a vanished vampire. With a compelling story and fascinating characters, this novel is perfect for the average mystery reader as well as fans of fantasy!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Last Smile is a blend of urban fantasy with Hardboiled private eye. You see there once where all these magical beings, but the war is over, the magic is gone, and the elves, the dwarves, the ogres, and the goblins are now doctors, lawyers, and accountants. Lots of good imagination at work here, but I never fully bought into the concept.

In a world where magic has disappeared, formerly supernatural beings struggle to survive and seek out potential places where magic might return, and everything that was once run by magic has stopped. It's a grim and gritty place to be, and protagonist Fetch Philips must dig into its seediest niches to track down a vampire he's been asked to find. The setting is unique and while the characters aren't the best-fleshed out I've ever read, they are interesting enough for this noir-style thriller. A good read for the overlap between dystopia fans and readers who love the urban paranormal.