Wednesday 13 April 2016

Hell Reviews: The Devil's Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth


Synopsis: Welcome to hell....... where skinless demons patrol the lakes and the waves of Limbo wash against the outer walls, while the souls of the Damned float on their surface, waiting to be collected.
When an unidentified, brutalised body is discovered, the case is assigned to Thomas Fool, one of Hell's detectives, known as 'Information Men’. But how do you investigate a murder where death is commonplace and everyone is guilty of something?

This is a book my mum recommended to me on Goodreads at totally random, purely on the basis of me liking horror and I am so glad she did.

On a normal basis I don't do crime, but mixing mysteries and demons? That's right up my alley.
Saying this book doesn't hold back is an understatement, there's gruesome demons, tons of blood, lots of fire, shining angels and a nice array of characters.

One thing I tend to dislike about crime books is the detective work and initially I was worried that this book would be like a basic crime book just based in Hell, but despite the focus being on one of three Information Men in the book I didn't find the investigation segments dragged at all.
The added horror elements really made the background information more interesting than if it had been a basic human detective, the fact the entire story is based in Hell gave the author a whole world to explore and delve into and Simon wastes no time in creating his own awful place.
He created various races of demon, the differences of classes and treatments that parallel the modern rich against poor society we live in today with a devilish twist and that made it all the more interesting.

Our lead character, Thomas Fool, begins as a seeming novice at his job and slowly builds as a character as the book progresses and the characters he interacts with all affect him in some way. It was nice to see a character who doubted himself, perhaps a little too much at times which could get tiring at points, but compared to the amount of self assured, strongly independent and always right detectives you get in other books it was a pleasant change.

I like the look into the relationship between angels and demons and those souls belonging in Limbo.
Michael and Balthazar were strong characters in themselves and I enjoyed the short but many segments that they showed up.

The crimes themselves were interesting and I like how the killer used various methods to destroy his victims, although I did find myself figuring out what was going on before I'd reached halfway in the books, but I wasn't completely correct in my guesses and the need to find out what was going on amongst the demons and tainted souls pushed me forward towards the end.

I had very few complaints honestly, aside from Fool's constant doubt and moping about being rather useless I never found myself groaning, sighing or rolling my eyes at anything

It's a book I would definitely recommend for those who can hold their stomach on some sicker details and I for one am looking forward to buying the sequel.

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