Devil's Paw by Debra DunbarMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Being as this is the fourth in a series where things build from one book to the next, there is very little that I can mention that isn’t spoiler-y for the series. Oh, I can mention things non-spoiler-y for the book, but very little that isn’t spoiler-y for the series.
So, let me see: In vague hopefully non-spoiler –y terms – this is the book where, somewhere along the line – I think I was at about 67% or so, I almost ‘hit a wall’, so to speak. Gregory is an arrogant, condescending, smug, know-it-all-but-is-wrong asshole who has literally tried to kill Samantha several times (not – gotten so rough that he almost did, but literally tried to kill her a few times). He’s an abusive asshole and normally I’d have run the opposite direction from this series. This isn’t a new revelation in book four, otherwise I wouldn’t have started the paragraph the way I did (re: non-spoiler-y). No, this is the way he has been since book one. So? Why have I read and rather enjoyed these books despite assholes like Gregory in it? Two reasons: Gregory isn’t actually Sam’s boyfriend (that’d be the human Wyatt), and two – Sam goes out of her way to lie, and push Gregory to the breaking point – no, I’m not saying ‘Sam deserves it’, I’m saying ‘Sam is a demon and really enjoys pissing off Gregory and ‘gets off on’ both doing that and, well, pain – she finds pain pleasurable.
The problem, the reason why I started to ‘hit a wall’ with this book is two simple facts: the nature of Sam has morphed over time – she’s still a demon, but she’s also grown to be more; the nature of the relationship between Gregory and Samantha, always oddly filled with fear, love, hate, etc., has also morphed over time. Basically, it’s one thing when Samantha pushes Gregory’s buttons, he reacts by almost strangling her, and she moans in pleasure; and something completely different when . . . not sure how to word this – when the action looks more like an abusive relationship with Samantha the battered woman.
But enough of that. This book here is about following up on a specific plot point that has popped up here and there in previous books (or, to word things more fully, two plot lines from prior books are touched upon further in this book). In prior books Gregory would turn up with a severed head and ask Sam to examine it. For all she could tell, it appeared human. Gregory said that it was a demon. There are books/movies and the like wherein a creature would die, like say a werewolf, and it would ‘revert’ to human form. Demons don’t do that. For one thing they aren’t human, nor are they some mutation of humans. For another, unless I misread things, demons remain demons after death. They might end up looking human after death, but only if they died while in a human body – ‘demon energy’ is still traceable, though, in the body. Normally. The severed head has no trace of demon energy. For all intents and purposes, Gregory keeps turning up with severed human heads while proclaiming them to be ‘demons’. Demons who had something drain them of all demon energy.
Well, Samantha and Gregory go on a hunt – searching for who and what might be acting like a serial killer. The heat has turned up, the need to find the killer has increased, because an Angel has now been added to the drained body count.
Meanwhile, and this another of the plot points from prior books pulled forward, one of the humans that Sam previously meet in Elfland, has been ‘rescued’ by Sam. And presented as a gift to Wyatt. Much misunderstanding and anger erupts ((view spoiler)).
Soooo . . . another interesting and good book, though certain issues had me rating this as the lowest rated book, so far, in the series.
Rating: 3.88
July 12 2017
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