Let me start the review by saying that categorizing Premee Mohamed's work into one genre is a difficult task, and that's no different with Wickhills; so bear with me as I try to capture in words what I consider one of the most imaginative settings I've read in the recent years (weird cities might be one of my favourite tropes) used as the perfect scenario for a story that could be defined as a Cold War analogue espionage fantasy that progressively gets weirder, in the same way as we discover more behind the layers of Wickhills.

A story with a simple beginning, a bit in the way of classic spy stories, with a streetwise secret agent, Ferenc, tasked with protecting a foreign defector; however, what should have been a simple mission soon gets much more complicated, Ferec and his team on the run from the agency, relying on illicit resources and contacts. With the defector carrying an apocalypse-level weapon that could break the fragile equilibrium between the cities, our characters will have to go underground to find how to solve it, a journey that will expose the cracks in the system above.

Ferec acts as the main character of the story, an undercover spy for an agency that is proficient in the particular ways of the city; his past helping his acts, knowledge that he can use for the missions. It's far from being a perfect person, being more what we could call a morally grey character, bright but with questionable choices. He can be a bit coldhearted when taking decisions, but it's understandable when put into context. The rest of the cast is also interesting, each one in their own ways (and some, like certain King, leave a long-lasting impression).

The own city feels a bit like its own character, and our impression of it will change as the plot advances, as Mohamed slowly unravels the weirdness behind the apparent low fantasy setting; you pass from "okay, simple espionage story" to "just let the author cook" pretty fast. The reader's attention is rewarded with an imaginative and weird setting, perfect to accompany that twisty and convoluted plot, which, in a certain sense, takes the tropes of espionage stories to create something different, inviting to question the system and its interests through the eyes of Ferec and the rest.
It is brilliantly paced, a bit fast with plenty of action scenes, but balancing all of them with some moments to catch the breath, allowing us to process all that happened and how this affects the story.

Wickhills is an excellent novel, another proof of Premee Mohamed's brilliance; I can't recommend it enough, especially for those fans of things that are not afraid to go far from the conventional, almost weird fiction. Do yourself a favour and pick a copy!