Devilish Good Time - Here There Be Monsters (that you should read about ASAP)

City of Devils by Justin Robinson

* Provided by Candlemark & Gleam/NetGalley for Review

5 out of 5 gnomes

This book made me smile so much while reading it.  I love the noir atmosphere, the plethora of puns, and the myriad of monsters that are seen.

Nick Moss is a human in a world where monsters are the norm and far outnumber humans. He also happens to be the only human Private Investigator and the actual police force consists only of werewolves or wolfmen.  This essentially means that it’s hard out there for a human.

The story takes place after two wars the one with Germany and The Night War, the war the humans didn’t win.  The Night War led the the monsters overtaking everything.  The setting really makes the story shine, well that and the great supporting characters.  If you’re a fan of noir detective books or books about monsters that are fun/scary then this is a book that you should check out ASAP.

Things get very interesting when a client wants him to find her husband. This client is a doppleganger movie star and puts Nick in the middle of a lot of trouble with some important monsters.  He seems to be a magnet for trouble but also great at figuring ways out of these predicaments.

It’s awesome to see all the different ways to scare off the monsters and how each of these monsters works.  I also thought that it was pretty ingenious how these monsters actually do need humans and the reason why they need them.  Monsters trying to recruit in the human neighborhood after dark made for some really funny lines especially from Sam the Pumpkinhead who’s determined to turn Nick into one of his kind.  

I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll just say, Go for the monsters and stay for the mystery which is full of some delicious twists and turns where just about anybody could be the bad guy.