Ani Katz is a writer, photographer, and teacher. She was born and raised on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, and lives in Brooklyn.
Her new novel is Haven, which she calls "a meditation on techno-dystopia masquerading as a locked room mystery."
At CrimeReads Katz tagged five "genre-bending thrillers that employ elements of sci-fi, noir, and horror to explore what happens when the imaginations of the powerful serve the most venal and repressive of goals." One title on the list:
The City & The City by China MiévilleRead about another title on the list.
Miéville’s much-lauded police procedural is something special. What seems at first like a straightforward murder investigation of a foreign student quickly becomesmore than meets the eye– though actually, in the fictional Eastern European city of Beszél, choosing what does and does not meet your eye is a matter of grave consequence. Beszél has a twin city, Ul Qoma– the two cities are so close that they are intertwined, sharing much of the same geographical space, but the citizens of each metropolis must “unsee” the other. To acknowledge the other city is known as breaching, a violation which brings on the full force of Breach, an inescapable, all-seeing secret police. Breach, and you disappear forever. Inspector Tyador Borlu’s investigation leads him through iron doors and puzzle boxes of bureaucracy in what becomes a search for a rumored third city hiding between Beszél and Ul Qoma. Miéville deftly conjures a sense of surveillance and control so oppressive it feels physically palpable.
The City and the City is among Jon Bassoff's eight novels set in strange, unsettling towns and Walter Mosley's five favorite books.
--Marshal Zeringue
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