Helpful Score: 7
First, please understand that I do not read much in the horror-fantasy genre. This book was a big departure from my normal reading.
A freelance exorcist in an alternate world in which ghosts, werewolves, and other supernatural things are commonplace, takes on a deceptively-simple assignment because he's broke and needs to pay the rent. (I think the book is in part a send-up of every hard-boiled detective novel ever written. After a time, it became a game of spot the cliché.) The first half of the book was full of surprises, very interesting, witty, pleasantly creepy, and made the world of the book quite real to me. Then the author ran out of gas and plot and rather plodded his way to the end. The writing is very good, and the dialogue is particularly good. The first half of the book is good. I gather that this is the author's first full length novel, and I'm hopeful his skill will improve.
A freelance exorcist in an alternate world in which ghosts, werewolves, and other supernatural things are commonplace, takes on a deceptively-simple assignment because he's broke and needs to pay the rent. (I think the book is in part a send-up of every hard-boiled detective novel ever written. After a time, it became a game of spot the cliché.) The first half of the book was full of surprises, very interesting, witty, pleasantly creepy, and made the world of the book quite real to me. Then the author ran out of gas and plot and rather plodded his way to the end. The writing is very good, and the dialogue is particularly good. The first half of the book is good. I gather that this is the author's first full length novel, and I'm hopeful his skill will improve.
