The Last Smile In Sunder City

This book opens with the line: “Do some good,” she’d said.

The Last Smile In Sunder City made me laugh in one page.

It is a zippy read with 318 little pages. A great book for those who read an hour at a time and get bored when a sentence goes on for too long. It’s no surprise the author is Australian.

The setting is a kind of dystopian Harry Potter and we follow a classic, timeless character (the barely sober private detective type).

The setting is naturally very gripping because it subverts the fantasy, making humankind one of the more evil and uncommon species found in the world.

It is all very scrappy and loveable — thankfully the author launches into some terrifying world-building and sets up a mystery quickly.

A primary school teacher, who also happens to be a 300-year-old vampire, has gone missing.

This is a great book if you’re looking for something you can read yourself, then use to occupy your sulky teenage grandchild who spends their holidays cursing grandma’s slow internet.

The Last Smile In Sunder City by Luke Arnold is published by Hatchette Australia, RRP $22.99.