You know how when you were a little monster, and you and your monster friends would scare each other? You might have some scary stuffed rabbits, a fake severed monster head, and a flashlight. And then you would play something that was like hide-and-seek and your friend would jump out of a cabinet, turn on the lights, and throw a bunny at you? Remember how it was fun the first hundred times?
Regular readers will remember that I just reviewed another book by Liz Williams, Snake Agent, last month. Snake Agent is the first book in her Detective Chen series. I really loved it and was excited that there were already three sequels available.
In a nutshell, Chen and Irzh are once again pulled into circumstances very much beyond their control as the powers and bureaucracies of Chinese Heaven and Hell converge on the case of a meddling pharmaceuticals magnate who has made a deal with… well you’ll have to read it to find out. Zhu Irzh finds himself unable to maintain a professional distance from the case, but hey! He’s a demon, so what do you expect?
Demon and the City starts a little differently from Snake Agent. There is a murder, but it becomes clear very quickly who was behind it, so it eschews the murder mystery genre quite a bit more. Also, the demon, Zhu Irzh is more the main character. Detective Chen doesn’t show up until about halfway through the book. The story is very imaginative, and there is the same sort or wry comedy that made Snake Agent so entertaining. Another difference is that there are two romances going on in the book, both of which are very interesting.
This leads me to my confusion. I simply didn’t like this book as much as Snake Agent, and it’s hard to put my finger on why. I do know that I like Detective Chen more than Zhu Irzh. I also enjoyed how Snake Agent is a huge, dark farce. Demon and the City definitely takes itself more seriously. Demon and the City also seemed more scattered, following more characters. At the same time, I’m left with the nagging suspicion that if I had read this book first, I might have liked it better.
Creepy Factor: 3 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 3 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 3 out of 5
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 4 out of 5
Final result: I just can’t get as excited about this book as I did the last, but I think that it was still a good read and would recommend it for fans of dark fiction. I’ve got the next Detective Chen novel, Precious Dragon, ready to roll. For anyone interested in the author, here is an interesting interview with Liz Williams.
The Demon and the City by Liz Williams – Night Shade Books – 2006
Buy The Demon and the City on Amazon
Thanks for reading another one of my book reviews. See you next time!
RSS Feed
