Imperial Purple

Lilith Saintcrow
Working for the Devil
Orbit. 2005

‘Lilith Saintcrow’ is such a great moniker. I love it. Working for the Devil is the first in a series of books (five at latest count) starring Dante Valentine, tough girl and necromancer. The ‘Awakening’ has happened and a few people such as Dante (Danny to her friends) have become psychic in one way or another. She summons up the spirits of the dead – usually to settle disputes over wills or criminal cases. It’s a living (sorry).

When the devil (old Lucifer in person) makes her an offer she can’t refuse she takes off in pursuit of a psychopathic demon who murdered (among others) her best friend. To aid in her quest she is assigned a tall, dark handsome demon who is one of the big D’s assassins.

This is my first quibble with the book. You could virtually substitute ‘vampire’ for ‘demon’ and we would have another vampire novel. Vampire novels are ok I guess but why do the vampires always end up as a cross between Mr Darcy and Mr Spock? To be fair, at least sex with a demon has historical antecedents. Sex with vampires has always struck me as being a bit yucky and who would want an ice-cold phallus anyway? I suppose you could dip it in hot water for ten minutes before you got underway. But I digress.

Accepting Darcy/Spock as a given we get into the chase proper and the build-up of the gang of intrepid adventurers. The most realistic of them is a seriously annoying ex-lover of Danny’s. He is far and away the most rounded character – the others are a bit formulaic.

I won’t go through the whole story in detail (I hate reviews that do that) but I’m probably not giving too much away when I say that the fiend eventually cops it and Lucifer turns out to have not been telling the complete truth. The Darcy/Spock character does end up in an unexpected state so full marks for that.

I had a little trouble grading this one. Certainly I had no difficulty in getting through it – it bubbled along. It was good fun in parts but I felt unsatisfied at the end. Still it is first in a series so maybe it gets better. More than ‘fans only’ but not fabulous. Three stars.