Secrets of the Demon by Diana Rowland
Series: Kara Gillian #3
Published on: January 4th 2011
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 310
Format: Paperback
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Kara has pledged herself to one of the most powerful of demons-a Demon Lord-who helped save her partner's life, but now expects things in return. Meanwhile, she's trying to solve a string of murders that are somehow tied together by money, sex, rock music and...mud. But how can she concentrate on the case when she's not even sure who-or what-her partners are?
Secrets of the Demon [Anyone else want to imagine that as Scent of the Demon?] is a perfect opportunity to flex your sleuthing muscles. Quick, count off on your fingers the ten different kinds of demons and how each might aid the case!
Kara Gillian depends on the oddest tools to stay on the trail. She would take offense to me calling her a real weirdo but it’s the kind of weird her Louisiana police department needs.
Then again, her talents do tend to endanger herself and others. In my speaking about our main character you may have detected me speaking about her as if she were a person I felt I knew pretty well. If you did, you would be well on your way to earning a badge on some police force.
This series goes to a lot of trouble in world-building to take the spotlight off just how well-developed both the composition of each individual book and Kara as a loner gradually making friends are.
The expected autospy – now three books running – remains a source of squicks for Kara. Will she ever have the nerve to drain an eyeball? Her aunt Tessa continues to be informative yet distant.
Then there is the wacky love triangle: Kara smooching a demonic lord late in the night while working the cases in the daytime with o-so-friendly Ryan. Can she move out from her between worlds romance and pursue one with another human? Should she? Is not the demonic lord perfectly capable of satisfying her needs? Who needs a connection?
Thus we get to the central thesis/problem of the series. Is it worthwhile to develop connections with those you live with and interact with rather than just say the demons you summon in the privacy of your basement?
Before you go to jumping the gun and taking my posing the question as a rhetorical strategy – now I will tell you how much connections matter, how you should go out and shake hands with your neighbor, etc., etc. – the depth of this fiction complicates whatever answer I suppose is right significantly.
While I would for all intents and purposes endorse the forging of connections between man and man and woman and woman, I would not want to stop reading these books or, for that matter, fantasizing. And, as far as fantasies go, this one about demons, detectives, and basements is pretty fantastic.
