3.5 Stars.
I was unsure on how to start on this review but I have decided to start by saying how much I enjoy books about hell/heaven/angels/demons etc. The context of this book was probably the main reason I picked up this book and the slight uniqueness in storyline. Murder cases and detective stories now play such a large part in the book reading world that it is almost impossible to find something too unique or too different from the usual 'catch the killer' case. I am always on a search to find something different as I really enjoy thrillers/case style stories.
So, this book follows Fool as our main character who is an Information Man of hell and his job is to solve cases and investigate through gaining information. He has jurisdiction over all of hell and its human and demon counterparts. The story follows Fool's investigation into the murder of a Genevieve (a male sex slave) and the follow up murders to humans which take place.
There is a lot more to the story than this but I don't want to give too much away about what happens in hell, the characters and the overall structure of hell. Compared to some books, it was very different to see the way in which Unsworth creates his world and how hell works as a society. That was the main 'unique' quality for me in this book, that, and the fact that I had no idea who the killer was until around page 300 when it also dawned on the main character.
The main reasons for my rating on this book was the pace of the book. I just cannot describe the way the book works. There are some pretty explicit descriptions and although the victims die quite a terrible death, there isn't any action or gruesomeness in build up to their murders. There is one murder that Fool watches which has good description but it still didn't seem very thrilling I suppose. The book is very dark and I did enjoy the book overall and I don't think the action that was missing etc would have made me enjoy the book anymore as it may have changed the way the book was read.
Overall, something a little different in the horror/thriller genre and a different perspective on hell.
Happy reading :)
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