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A review by calicocatkin
The Devil's Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth
3.0
A very cool premise, with an interesting and likeable protagonist, and some inventive world building. The murder investigation is refreshingly different, as it's being conducted within the supernatural parameters and rules of Hell - for example, you can conduct various unpleasant rituals to interrogate a corpse in the hopes of finding out more about the murder. Some dramatic action sequences, especially towards the denouement.
Now to the negative. There are only I think 3 women ever mentioned in the entire book, 2 of whom are nameless NPCs. The other is a fellow detective, who is seen sobbing in nearly every scene she appears in (which isn't many), and then is violently killed fairly early on. Both of these things are arguably somewhat expected given the setting, but it's not a great look for that to be all the single female character gets to do. Plus Hell's investigators are called Information Men, and I really thought initially there was going to be some interrogation of why Hell is a patriarchy (although when I put it that way...), but ultimately it just seemed like the author didn't care about portraying women at all. Plus, as far as I can tell, everyone in the book is white.
There's a fair amount of gore, violence and bodily fluids in this book, to a level that was a bit much for me personally.
So pretty mixed feelings about this one. Overall I don't think I'll bother with the next in the series.
Now to the negative. There are only I think 3 women ever mentioned in the entire book, 2 of whom are nameless NPCs. The other is a fellow detective, who is seen sobbing in nearly every scene she appears in (which isn't many), and then is violently killed fairly early on. Both of these things are arguably somewhat expected given the setting, but it's not a great look for that to be all the single female character gets to do. Plus Hell's investigators are called Information Men, and I really thought initially there was going to be some interrogation of why Hell is a patriarchy (although when I put it that way...), but ultimately it just seemed like the author didn't care about portraying women at all. Plus, as far as I can tell, everyone in the book is white.
There's a fair amount of gore, violence and bodily fluids in this book, to a level that was a bit much for me personally.
So pretty mixed feelings about this one. Overall I don't think I'll bother with the next in the series.