Friday Firsts – The Holver Alley Crew by Marshall Ryan Maresca

Friday Firsts is a new meme that will run every Friday here on Tenacious Reader. It will feature the first few sentences/paragraph of my current book and my first impressions as well. It’s meant to be a quick and easy way to share a bit about what I am reading, and I would love to hear others join in sharing their current reads as well.

ASTI RYNAX COULDN’T SLEEP. The bedroll wasn’t
the problem. He’d slept plenty of nights in jail cells, road
ditches, even trapped inside a wooden crate. The problem
was sleeping on a hot wooden floor in the single- room flop,
his younger brother, brother’s wife, and crying baby just ten
feet away behind a thin cloth. He craved his own flop, his
own space, without families, babies, or smoke.
Smoke.
Asti sat up, smelling the air.
Definitely smoke. And not from the oil lamps.
Asti sprang to his feet. “Verci. Wake up.”
“What, what is it?”
“Smoke.”

Verci was out of the bed, crossing over to Asti in a flash,
despite being naked. Asti’s eyes went to the slight paunch
his brother was getting. Married life was taking its toll on
his normally lean body. “You’re right.”
“It’s just the Greenfields’ kitchen,” Raych mumbled
from the bed.
“No, it’s too strong,” Asti said. He glanced back at Verci.
“Put something on.”
Verci waved him off, taking another smell. “Much too
strong.”

Asti touched the door. It was warm. Cautiously he
cracked it open. The hallway glowed with crackling flames.

Maresca, Marshall Ryab (2017-03-07). The Holver Alley Crew (The Streets of Maradaine) (p. 1). DAW.

• Quote taken from an ARC and may not match the final version

My First Impressions

Maresca has a very easy to read writing style. So far I am finding that to be the case with The Holver Alley Crew as well. It starts off with excitement and action, and we quickly get a feel for the main character. I’m enjoying it.

And I think this series will be more up my alley than the Maradaine Constabulary. For those not familiar with Maresca, this is the start of a third series that runs parallel to two others: Maradaine (which started with someone in a Magic school, that is a vigilante in his free time, fighting the drug trade) and the Maradaine Constabulary which follows a couple of detectives in the city. And this third series gives us some eyes inside of the organized crime side of the city.

What are you reading right now? Did it start out strong? Feel free to share in the comments.