The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P Djeli Clark

Publisher – Tordotcom

Published – Out Now

Price – £12.99 hardback £11.49 Kindle ebook

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats.

Nor do they have tails.

But they are most assuredly dead.


Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins—resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories—have only three unbreakable vows.

First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.

Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.

The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.

Sometimes we read for shared understanding, sometimes we read to stretch our imaginations to the minute, to be comforted, to be troubled but every now and then who doesn’t just enjoy kicking their feet back and just reading for fun? Making a read breezy and joyous is not as easy as it looks, there are so many blockbuster movies that should on paper be fun but just feel like a set of scenes that happen without much thinking to them. Fortunately, books can be better and in P Djeli Clark’s fantasy novella much fun is achieved and there is a subtle taking the old sword and sorcery tales and giving them a much needed 21st century refresh.

 In the ancient and powerful city of Tal Abisi we have areas cut off by magical wars, powerful and ruthless nobles, pirates and assassins. Eveen (try not to call her the Eviscerator) is a skilled Assassin working for the The Dead Cat Tail Assassins one of the many local groups, but Eveen has some advantages(ish) she is already dead, has immense powers of recovery and very good at her job. However tonight she just wants to enjoy festival, eat good food and find good company. Unfortunately work calls and a new job is assigned and after taking out n unusual level of guards she finds a young girl she needs to kill….but she finds out she can’t do that. But breaking the laws o the assassins codes brings even more trouble and Tal Abasi is never short of assassins and intrigue.

Fantasy cities filled with trouble are a wonderful part of the sword and sorcery genre from Lankhmar to Ankh-Morpork they offer authors the ability to mix and match monsters, heroes and more. In Tal Abasi Clark does just that we have tales of Clockwork Princes, mages, assassins, merchants and a shadowy underworld. Even with a story pretty much taking place in a short space of time it feels through the subtle things we learn as we go along vast, ancient and always interesting. It’s a fantasy city where anything could be going on along the next street and this tale is just one of many. We go from the homes of the rich to bars, to markets to assassins’ hideouts to even forbidden empty areas filled with magical power. Clark has always been a good storyteller, but I really appreciated that this is a fantasy series with echoes to the past but also decidedly its own thing – it is not the standard medieval European setting; or even our own history slightly changed, the cast is diverse and not afraid to mix fantasy with steampunk with even a touch of science. It is a lot of fun to explore so keep your eyes peeled for clues and insights as we follow Eveen.

Eveen’s predicament is unexpected. Assassins showing mercy is not unexpected but the particular reason here is a doozy and I’d be a selfish reviewer to spoil you, but it is not one you’d expect but hugely inventive. What helps buy it is we spend a quick bit of time prior to meet Eveen and she is hard not to like. Even for an undead assassin with no real memories of her past she has humour, lives for the moment and also loves her books about the adventures of heroes….really loves those books. While we know she kills people she’s likeable, funny but also very very good at fighting and killing. When she decides to not kill and puts her three rules odf Assassins  in breach we are on her side. Which is good because we soon see not everyone is and Clark then really enjoys throwing more magical assassins at Eveen and we soon find each is very different in skills, magic and approach. Quite a few verge even on creepy and the battles are not one sided, Eveen can be hurt even if not killed and that gives the set pieces a neat level of uncertainty Huge fun too!

All of this wraps neatly into the wider plot and why Eveen has been pulled into this. It neatly slots together and adds some clues (but not all to Eveen’s past) but also throws in more powerful human and non-human figures into the mix. Two of whom at the end you won’t see coming…. A lot of which further cements why we like Eveen and it also has a little bit of problem solving to resolve too. It also has a little dig at tech bros – how can I not savour that at the moment?  It’s the kind of puzzle box of a novella story where the reader must ensure they get the pieces have to align by the end and Clark doesn’t make it look too easy to solve.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is the sort of tale you can sit back and enjoy the ride in, filled with energy, imagination and characters to enjoy meeting. But while you do so take a moment to appreciate the skill taken to make this tale lean, fast and trying new things and mixing up the old classic feel of the genre. I dearly hope we get to visit Tal Abisi again sometime. It is a highly recommendation trip!