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A review by joncohnauthor
Friend of the Devil by Stephen Lloyd
4.0
Really fun and quick read that sucks you into a number of crime and horror tropes that ultimately pay off in somewhat unexpected ways.
Insurance detective Sam has been sent to a private school on a remote island, tasked with finding a stolen book of great value. I don't think its much of a spoiler to say this book is indeed more important than the school initially lets on, and the hunt for "whodunnit" quickly turns into a "whydunnit," which then finally, turns into something else entirely.
Lets be real, this is a very short book. It's more or less hyper focused on the plot, and despite that, we still get a surprising amount of personality in our pool of characters. Our central POV comes from our Detective Sam, who more or less acts like a non-wizard version of Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files books (not that I have anything wrong with that). We also have a number of highly eccentric teachers, along with a group of student characters led by Harriett, a D&D nerd who also likes to see herself as a detective in training. It's hard for her character to not give off Stranger Things vibes, but again using tropey shorthand to get you into a character's mindset is not always a bad thing, especially when a story moves as quickly as this one.
One thing I especially enjoyed *Minor/Moderate spoilers ahead in this paragraph* is how Stephen Lloyd used our knowledge of tropes to lure me into thinking I knew exactly what was going on just enough to think I was clever, only to reveal that was a breadcrumb leading to something else that I in no way saw coming. I really appreciate it when authors play with expectations like this, especially since upon reflection it doesn't feel like he was playing unfair with the audience. The pieces are all laid out for you, it's just up to you to make the right connections.
My only criticism of the book was that it felt like it was at times pulling back on some horror elements in order to have more mass appeal as a supernatural crime thriller. Between that, and I think the story could have been a little longer, this was a really fun, if not disposable, popcorn book that I had an absolute blast while reading.
Insurance detective Sam has been sent to a private school on a remote island, tasked with finding a stolen book of great value. I don't think its much of a spoiler to say this book is indeed more important than the school initially lets on, and the hunt for "whodunnit" quickly turns into a "whydunnit," which then finally, turns into something else entirely.
Lets be real, this is a very short book. It's more or less hyper focused on the plot, and despite that, we still get a surprising amount of personality in our pool of characters. Our central POV comes from our Detective Sam, who more or less acts like a non-wizard version of Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files books (not that I have anything wrong with that). We also have a number of highly eccentric teachers, along with a group of student characters led by Harriett, a D&D nerd who also likes to see herself as a detective in training. It's hard for her character to not give off Stranger Things vibes, but again using tropey shorthand to get you into a character's mindset is not always a bad thing, especially when a story moves as quickly as this one.
One thing I especially enjoyed *Minor/Moderate spoilers ahead in this paragraph* is how Stephen Lloyd used our knowledge of tropes to lure me into thinking I knew exactly what was going on just enough to think I was clever, only to reveal that was a breadcrumb leading to something else that I in no way saw coming. I really appreciate it when authors play with expectations like this, especially since upon reflection it doesn't feel like he was playing unfair with the audience. The pieces are all laid out for you, it's just up to you to make the right connections.
My only criticism of the book was that it felt like it was at times pulling back on some horror elements in order to have more mass appeal as a supernatural crime thriller. Between that, and I think the story could have been a little longer, this was a really fun, if not disposable, popcorn book that I had an absolute blast while reading.