Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Book Review: Hellmaw: Blind Justice by Erik Scott de Bie

Summary
FBI Agent Maria Ruiz is being called all over the United States for murder cases. They seem normal enough-- for murder cases-- until Maria starts having visions of a rainbow-eyed woman. She's involved at all these unconnected crime scenes. Maria thinks she's going nuts, but maybe there is something in common with the victims. Maybe this is a serial killer.
And maybe, the killer isn't human at all.

That's my summary. Here's the one I pulled from amazon

Noted fantasy author Erik Scott de Bie brings us the third HELLMAW novel, in which jaded FBI agent Maria Ruiz learns she really hasn't seen it all. Amid the splattered blood of increasingly depraved and spectacular murders is something strange, something beyond the limits of mortal justice. Ruiz is closing in, over heaped bodies, on a serial killer: an angel of death who may not be from this world.

Style
De Bie's writing is easy to sink into, clear, and compelling. He's got great dialogue, and I will say he is amazing at holding back information you didn't realize he was holding back. I'm serious. He sprang something on me that I didn't even realize I didn't know, because I never thought twice about it. He also writes with a great disconnect between reader and protagonist, letting the reader know things Maria doesn't, while still leting you see everything through Maria's eyes. I need to look into more of this author's works, definitely. His writing style and my reading style meshed very well.

My Thoughts
Blind Justice is an excellent set of murder mysteries that all go together. Its separation into parts to go along with the crime scenes keeps everything nice and smooth reading-wise, and I like the way de Bie brings the reader along with Maria uncovering things. We do get to see the victims before they are done away with, which I like a lot, seeing things from both sides-- before and after the murder-- so the reader gets to know things before Maria does. I got to draw my own conclusions first, and that made things a lot of fun, rather than being dragged along after.
De Bie managed to get me truly infuriated at at least one character. I mean I wanted to rip this person's head off. That doesn't happen to me often, so kudos to him there. I won't say I overly loved any particular character, but I empathized. But engendering that hatred. Power to him on that one!

Would I Recommend This Book? Highly! De Bie takes his readers on a great tale of supernatural mystery disguised as textbook cases. It's so very lightly set in the Hellmaw setting that it's actually easy to forget it's a Hellmaw book. That's not good or bad, but it's interesting how long he goes without really bringing on the daemons. I give Blind Justice a narrow-minded 5 of 5 stars.

For more on the author, visit erikscottdebie.com

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