Vancouver in the twenty-second century is a city of stark contrasts, divided between its prospering Guild citizens and the starving descendants of American refugees who fled ecological catastrophe and political chaos decades ago.

Newcomer Klale Renhardt is struggling to survive on the half drowned, ungoverned island of Downtown, where every type of trade is controlled by tongs or gangs. When she finds a job through Toni, the tough, beautiful American bartender at the famous KlonDyke nightclub, Klale finally allows herself to feel safe--until she hears that Toni may have been a torturer for the tongs.

Even more disturbing is Toni's strange connection with Blade, the giant, bio-altered slave of Downtown's most feared blackmailer. Klale fears the rage that simmers behind the giant's eyes, but when she attracts the vengeful attention of a hidden enemy, Blade may be the only person who can save her.

Blade's psyche has been so profoundly twisted by neural implants that he doesn't even realize he's human. If Klale can't find a way to help him discover his own soul, she may not survive either her murderous enemy or the looming tong war.

Dance of Knives is a very powerful first novel. I read it when it first was published in 2001 and when it surfaced on my bookshelf recently I wondered if it had held up over the years.  Set in the Vancouver of the 22nd century, the book describes a world coping with the ecological disasters of previous centuries and a vastly changed society. People are divided between the powerful guilds and the desperate guildless who live with virtually no rights or protections from the law. We learn about this world by following the adventures of Klale who leaves her powerful Fisher guild to make her way on her own in Downtown, an island refuge of the guildless in Vancouver. Life in Downtown is controlled by tongs and gangs, beggars line the streets and there is little safety or law, a vast change from the safe secure world of the guilds. Klale finds a job and a place to stay at the KlonDyke nightclub. She begins to make friends and build a life but the very friendships she is making may lead to her ultimate destruction as events beyond her control bring Downtown to the brink of destruction.

The 22nd century that Ms McMahon has created is, by turns, bleak and depressing interspersed with glimpses of the clean, safe havens of the guilds. Even the world outside Downtown contains undertones of darkness: What one does, all one's property, everything is controlled by the guild and without the guild one is nothing, has nothing. I found it disturbing simply because it is a very plausible result of the actions of today's society and even more plausibly now, 23 years after it was first written.  The characters of Klale, Toni the bartender and Blade, the bio-altered slave/enforcer have lived in my memory for a long time.

This book is a first-class thriller and I'm not doing it justice with the above description. It is a compelling, if somewhat disturbing, read. I will warn the reader that some of the plot and interactions between characters involves lesbianism, as well as physical and psychological torture. That said, I highly recommend this book. It appears Ms McMahon only wrote one more book, Second Childhood, a sequel to this book which I will now go look for. - Stephanie L Bannon