Praise for The reign of the kingfisher
“The Reign of the Kingfisher is an extraordinary novel. Martinson’s prose is so stunning, and his characters so indelible, that I’d suggest you read it even if you don’t read comic books and have little interest in superheroes; this is a book for people who like reading really, really good books. It’s an exciting debut, and a story that will stay with you for a long time.”
“Fans of superhero tales will relish Martinson’s energetic debut, in which the Kingfisher legend looms large over Chicago 30 years after the shadowy vigilante supposedly died... Readers will eagerly await his next novel.”
“Martinson has turned in a linguistically nimble and narratively taut fiction that skews closer to Jeffrey Deaver or Don Winslow than tales of costumed capers.”
Summary
“Hits a grand slam for its intended audience. It might even convince skeptics that superhero stories can make good literature.”
Somewhere in Chicago, a roomful of people have been taken hostage. The hostages will be killed one by one, the masked gunman says on-screen, unless the police will admit that they faked the death of the legendary superhero called the Kingfisher and helped him to give up his defense of the city thirty years ago.
Retired reporter Marcus Waters made his name as a journalist covering the enigmatic superhero’s five years of cleaning up Chicago’s streets. Then the Kingfisher died, Chicago resumed its violent turmoil, and Marcus slid back into obscurity.
But did the Kingfisher really die? And who would take hostages connected to the Kingfisher's past attempts to clean up the streets? With the help of disgraced police officer Lucinda Tillman and a young hacktivist named Wren, Marcus will explore the city's violence, corruption, and chaos to figure out if the vigilante hero died tragically, or gave up hope and abandoned the city―and for the hostages, the clock is ticking.