I was reading Snow Crash on the bus ride home from work when the girl sitting next to me recommended China Miéville if I liked Neal Stephenson. I take word of mouth recommendations pretty seriously so I picked up The City & the City while I was in Portland for Memorial Day weekend. I’m glad I took her recommendation because it is a fantastic book.

The story is set in a pair of fictional cities: Besźel and Ul Qoma. They are right next to each other but might as well be a thousand miles apart because the inhabitants of each city must “unsee” the other city. Failure to unsee the other city is a crime and results in Breach, a mysterious power that enforces the total separation of the cities, whisking the Breacher away, never to be seen or heard from again.

Inspector Tyador Borlú has been tasked with investigating the death of a girl. No one knows who she is, but things get complicated when evidence suggests that the murder occurred in the other city. I don’t want to give anymore away than I have to, but you can imagine how things get interesting when a murder investigation spans across cities like these.

The world Miéville has created sets The City & the City apart from any other murder mystery I have ever read. Miéville has crafted a story around the pair of cities that draws the reader into the mystery of their history and the people that live there. The characters are believable and the dialogue is rich in content. I highly recommend this book.