Spies and the City: Review of Premee Mohamed’s Wickhills

Kate Towner Under Review:Wickhills. Premee Mohamed. Tor Books, September 2026. In Premee Mohamed’s new book, Wickhills, the setting is gaslamp Dickensian fantasy. The plot is Cold War spy versus spy, complete with a defecting scientist, a mysterious new invention, intrigue and betrayals, and Mutually Assured Destruction. The plot spins wider, the stakes get higher, and no-one is above suspicion. Our guide is Ferec. He is a former street child, and is now a secret agent for a shadowy agency tasked with maintaining order. His deep knowledge of the city and love of trivia make him an entertaining and informed viewpoint character, as well as an inspired stratagem by the author. (No laboured justifications for worldbuilding infodumps needed if your character genuinely enjoys explaining his city to everyone he meets, or even to himself if he lacks an audience.) The author’s confidence in her world and her narrator also allows for beautiful images. When the ship Ferec and his colleague are…