The Court of Owls by Greg Cox

First of all, I want to say thank you to Drew over at The Tattooed Book Geek for reminding me that this one was coming out. I read his review and knew I had to pick it up ASAP.

Gonna make this a quick one, so hold on!

The book starts with a tortured/ murdered art-history professor and his missing grad student. Batman sees connections to The Court of Owls and an artist/ scientist Percy Wright, who lived and worked in Gotham one hundred years before.

Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Alfred combine forces to save the young woman while trying to stave off the Court’s Talons.

Here’s some things I enjoyed:

• Not an Origin Story: The reader is thrown into the working Batman’s world.  One might think would be dicey in regards to people who aren’t familiar with Batman’s overall story, but I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know at least a little about him will pick this book up. BTW I just posted a discussion about Superhero Intimidation here.
• Gadgets and Fight Scenes: Batarangs, Smoke Bombs, The Batmobile, and more. The Talons’ blood is infused with a regeneration formula that protects, and heals their injuries quickly. They also have knives, lots of knives.
• A Shifting Timeline: The story bounces back and forth between Wright’s work with his muse Lydia Doyle, and Batman current case. It’s a bit of a look into the workings of the court from two different time periods. Their goals of manipulating Gotham for their greedy cause has not changed, but many players have and some have not…

I can’t really think of anything I dislike about this book. I kind of knew what I was getting into and it was exactly what I was in the mood for.

Overall, this was a fantastic weekend read. Fast and full of Bat-Fun!

Recommended.

Also, here’s my review of the Harley Quinn book in this series by Titan Books called Mad Love. I loved that one too!