Book Review: The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick by Lisa Kuznak
A man wrestles with who he is, who he was, and who he wants to be.
Due to Forlorn Hope being extended by a few chapters the Winter Season of Ixonia has fallen a little out of sync, hence a book review on a Tuesday. If you still want to read a short story after this review I’ve linked one from the Archive down below. Thanks for reading and make sure to check out Lisa’s book, it’s very, very good.
eARC kindly provided by the author. Can be purchased in ebook or paperback (on release) at Amazon (UK, USA, Canada). Goodreads.
Release date is 27th of February 2024.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
is the author of Pallas and Pull Me Under (serialised right here on SubStack). Her new book The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick is a fantasy-western charting the lives of Tommy Fellham and Kennedy Thornwick. There'sPart One of the book charts Tommy and Kennedy in Magelock Penitentiary, a prison for magic using criminals that suppresses their powers by the use of a massive charmstone. Tommy was scheduled for hanging yet the law changed and the death penalty was outlawed leaving a legion of prisoners stuck in legal limbo and awaiting court hearings. Safe from execution but at risk of life imprisonment Tommy and Kennedy get creative, letters from the outside world telling tale of lost loves and hidden fortunes spur them on, and they plot a prison escape.
This was my favourite part of the book. The world is rich and Kuznak drip feeds the relevant information to you over the course of the whole story until you end up fully immersed in the magical world. The prison part is compact, limited, and where we learn who Kennedy and Tommy are, what they want, what their dreams are, and why they're imprisoned (rightly or wrongly...). Within the first couple of chapters we know of Kennedy's lost love, Margery Castmoor, far to the north, living in the midst of the fighting and we learn that Tommy was framed, by his brother no less, and serving time for a crime he didn't commit. While Tommy might have been an innocent law-abiding soul pre-incarceration he has since became a criminal in his own right, whether by necessity or not is for the reader to decide. This is the crux of the book. You're reading the exploits of a bunch of hardened criminals, and Tommy, as they attempt to find lost loves, get rich, while avoiding the law, the Mage Hunters, and romancing innocents along the road.
Is it fun? Most certainly.
Would you want these people as your friends? Not in the slightest, they'd drag you into their own mire and lock you down in the filth with thick bonds of loyalty.
Loyalties are crafted, destroyed, and reforged as and when necessary. The gentler souls, Tommy and Anna, may have a sense of decency or, dare I say, honour, but are still willing to perform evil or at least go along with it. This extends to the truly decent folk met along the way, either they are swooning over the devils, have some secret crime enterprise, or are corrupted by our “heroes”. It's quite brutal for the law abiding how a little charisma and charm can ruin their life, sometimes without knowing what it is their getting involved in.
This book is not for the faint of heart. Visceral, bloody, and grotesque at times while also endearing, sweet, and heart-wrenching at others. I won't reveal where those descriptors go as to avoid outright spoilers but the first of these happens before page 50 when Tommy goes from sweet innocent wronged by the system to outright butchery involving the fingers of a fellow prisoner. How he deals with his nefarious actions is where the book is richest, and most heart breaking. Tommy deserves better but he has no hope given his choice of friends, not that he has much choice their either. All he wanted was a beautiful wife, a little house, and a good job but being framed for murder and horse theft destroyed all that. His position is not enviable, due to be executed, death penalty outlawed, little means of getting a retrial, so he ends up stuck in prison for something he didn't do. Breaking out of prison is a crime but being eternally imprisoned for no reason is unjust, so he is caught in an impossible choice. Beyond this choice, however, is where Tommy's character begins to really plumb the depths.
Part Two of the novel is outside of the prison, the world opens up massively and feels like a new story. First we learn more about magic with one well placed line.
“We don’t have time to go through our personal spell books until we’re all shuddering like whores in an orgy—check his leg!” Kennedy said.
Magic is personal. While the power is universal the spells are unique which adds quite a hefty limitation to the art, not only that but using magic causes exhaustion and in the worst cases, sleep. Even the most expert mages who can sustain spells for hours will have to sleep for many, many hours to recover. Magic allows for massive explosive spells and minor tricks like changing the suit of a playing card. Beyond this the limit is the caster's imagination, and how long they can fight off sleep.
Tommy Fellham continues and while there are little glints of hope for him the trajectory is downward. He has to go through hell, committing evil all the way, before he can emerge on the other side. No one said redemption was easy. At its heart The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick is a love story. The loyalty of brothers, charity between friends, impulsive passion between lovers, budding romances, and xenia better known friendships of utility such as the rituals of hospitality. This is a story of the many ties-that-bind and how loyal someone should be to another, what breaks a bond and when is it right to sever a link?
Where Part One is confined to the prison, Part Three is confined to the city of Goodkirram. Though confined suggests small which the city is not. Here is where Tommy is really challenged with what life he wants to live, one of criminality or one of honesty. I'll leave you, dear reader, to discover how Tommy's story wraps up.
The worldbuilding is superb, whether it's the atmospheric descriptions or accented dialogue, the actions of men pushed to their wit's end or how magic and its prohibition by the church is shown to effect the lives of everyone. The world is easy to get lost in. While the reader is viewing it from the eyes of low-lives and criminals the whole time there is a hint of an honest world above, one which Tommy yearns to be part of (again) and one which Kennedy loves to take advantage of.
I won't say much more on the writing as my eARC was pre-final edit. The writing was immersive and convincing. The characters are complete, even minor ones have a depth that adds to each and every scene. Not every chapter is from Tommy's point-of-view and there were a few times where I had to double check who I was reading.
Story-wise the book is excellent and though I am left to wonder whether our criminal protagonists can walk the path to redemption or stumble off into the mire once more, I do feel for them and their plight. This is not a story of good people doing good things. Not even decent people. It's about ruffians and scoundrels corrupting others while Tommy (and Anna) desperately try to crawl out of the mire. It's not clear if they do.
Thank you for reading. The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick can be bought here - UK, USA, Canada.
Those of you spoiling for a short story, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Enjoy!
