Nicked

Nicked

by M.T. Anderson

Pantheon Books, 2024. 220 pages. Historical Fiction

The year is 1087, and a pox is sweeping through the Italian port city of Bari. When a lowly monk, Nicephorus, is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams, he interprets the vision as a call to action. But his superiors, and the power brokers they serve, have different plans. Enter Tyun, a charismatic treasure hunter renowned for "liberating" holy relics from their tombs. The seven-hundred-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas rest in distant Myra, Tyun explains, and they're rumored to weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick. For the humble price of a small fortune, Tyun will steal the bones and deliver them to Bari, curing the plague and restoring glory to the fallen city. And Nicephorus, the "dreamer," will be his guide. What follows is a heist for the ages, as Nicephorus is swept away on strange tides—and alongside even stranger bedfellows—to commit an act of sacrilege.

Perhaps due to his roots as an award-wining YA author, Anderson does a great job of balancing what could be dark topics with a light-hearted tone. This is a book about a heist, after all! There's also a sense of light magic and mysticism about the book. For example, one of the characters is a dog-headed man. While the time and setting are distant enough that I couldn't understand everything that was going on—especially the short mentions of church rituals and political intrigues of the 11th Century—the light tone and fast pacing allowed me to go along for the ride. This was refreshing historical fiction read.

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