Detectives Mallory and Gunner are on the hunt for a serial killer. He likes to leave behind index cards with reference to Dante's inferno which has them delving into the supernatural. an interesting read which has me wondering what the second book will be like.

I‘m ashamed it’s taken me so long to read this book, but now that I have, I think it was the extraordinary book blurb above that put me off. I’m not a great fan of long book blurbs that tell you the whole plot before you have opened a page, and there’s something quite disconcerting about a set of cheery references to other books that encompass Dante, James Joyce and Walter Mosley.

Setting my personal prejudices aside, however, City of Woe is an easy and perfectly decent read. Detectives Mallory and Gunner hunt for a vicious but very clever serial killer on the streets of NYC.

Frank Mallory is a second generation cop of Irish descent; a family man with a couple of kids he adores. His partner Al Gennaro is overweight, single but has the gift of the gab when it comes to the ladies; he can sweet talk his way into their lives as easily as warm butter on a hot loaf.

These two are our protagonists, though most of the action focuses on Frank- as the killer, not content with simply violently brutalising his many victims, sets out to taunt the cops and to bring his special brand of fear into the Mallorys’ home.

The first murder seems random enough, a young man found tied in brutally disfigured in the entrance to a subway. But before long a second body is found and the index cards found on the second body match those on the first and the cops know they have a dangerous serial killer to contend with.

Decent police procedure gets them their first break but Ryan cleverly misdirects the reader and leads us into darker territory. Is mental illness at play here and can that explain the many references on the index cards to Dante’s Inferno – or is this, as a local priest claims, an instance of a dybbuk – a ghost or disturbed soul that possesses the body of a living being and directs that being’s actions?

The interplay between the religious and the secular explanations is well done and makes for an interesting debate, more so because Mallory’s father is seriously ill in hospital and Mallory has to confront his lapsed Catholic beliefs head on in a personal way.

Ryan’s writing flows well and his characterisation is good. I liked the plot, but felt that it fell away somewhat in the second half and should have had a stronger finish.

Nevertheless, it was a perfectly good read and I’m glad I finally got to it.