A Devil in the Details

by K. A. Stewart

Reviewed by Ruby

Jesse James Dawson is a Champion. He fights demons for the souls of those dumb enough or desperate enough to make deals with them. This time his client is none other than Nelson Kidd; an over-the-hill baseball player who traded his soul for a few more years of fame, fortune and glory. To make matters worse, other Champions are going missing. Two have disappeared in a matter of weeks and are most likely dead. The leader of their organization is off to investigate but in the meantime he wants Jesse to walk away from the case. Unfortunately, Jesse has already started negotiations with the demon that owns Kidd’s soul so there is no backing out now.

To say I was disappointed with this book is a bit of an understatement. When I picked it up the summary on the back was describing a story where Jesse was fighting a demon to save his brother’s soul; that is not at all what I got. Yes, he saved his brother’s soul but that was before the book started; we are now years later and that was not what I wanted. I wanted a desperate battle where it wasn’t just his life but his brother’s on the line. What I got was Jesse doing his everyday job with an extra element added it. There was very little emotional attachment between Jesse and the case.

The story itself wasn’t that bad once I got into it. It was really obvious though. There is even a point near the end where Jesse said “should have seen that one coming”. Yes, you should have seen it coming, but there were so many random ‘subplots’ that were so small and didn’t go anywhere that I suppose it was hard for him to keep track of what he was doing, To me they were just annoying and pointless.

The style of writing was okay but there were a few instances where I got the impression that the author had no idea what she was talking about. First of all; a katana does not have a pommel. The way I was taught to hold one was to have the very tip of your left pinky at the very bottom of the hilt; it is very hard to do that with a pommel in the way. Second; I have never heard the expression ‘in deep kimchi’. I doubt it is American. It might be Japanese, considering Jesse calls himself a modern day samurai, but I somehow doubt that when people in Japan find themselves in deep trouble they say ‘we’re in deep Korean coleslaw now.’ Third; on all my visits to Toronto I have never met a French lumberjack living there. And as far as I know none of my family or friends that live there have met one either. I mean it is possible that a Francophone from Quebec or New Brunswick moved out to the other end of the country to follow his dreams and become a lumberjack and then somehow ended up back in the East in Toronto. It might have happened, Toronto in the largest city in Canada. But what is more likely is that the author just took a bunch of stereotypes and mushed them together. And considering that Toronto is the largest city in Canada I find it impossible that Jesse went ‘roughing it’ there.

Okay I’m done and even if you don’t take into account that I was misled by the back of the book it still didn’t live up to my expectations.

Grade: C

Coral's Review

I agree with everything Ruby mentioned about the plot of the book.

No matter how good a book might be, it's always disappointing when you pick up a book based on a summary you've read only to find out that the actual book is nothing like the summary. When I picked up this book, I was hoping for an emotional story where Jesse is pushed to the brink trying to save his brother's soul from a demon. While we do get some of the story, it's a pretty quick summary. I wish that, as the first book in the series, saving his brother would have been our introduction into the world.

For such a small book, I found there were too many subplots, so that sometimes it felt like the actual deal to save Nelson Kidd's soul was an after thought in the book. Even when some of the plots predictably came together, it didn't really make up for it. I'm still trying to figure out what the reason for including the plot with Kidd's agent.

It wasn't a bad book and I was interested to find out what would happen with the missing champions and Nelson Kidd, it just wasn't what I was hoping for when I picked it up.

Grade: C