Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of people? Well, I suppose Russel James does. In his latest offering, Demon Dagger, we find our hero, Drew, who has been gifted or maybe plagued with the ability to see through the meat skins they wear to the demon who inhabits the body.

Complicating matters even further, Drew suffers from a complicated marital situation. Throw in an unfortunate event where a demon he is chasing turns its attention to the one thing Drew loves more than anything in the world. His son.

To be fair, I like most books. I like reading in general and this one was a fast read in terms of flow. You dedicated readers out there will know what I mean. This was a fun and fast read.

To me the mark of a good book is if I like the central characters or not and I really did enjoy Drew and his mentor Lincoln. I also really enjoyed the character of Marvin. I thought he was fun.

So, why did I not give it a fifth star? I really did not care for his wife. She came off as cold, and overly given to anger issues to the point that she felt just annoying. I did not really get why she was so perpetually angry all the time. Her anger could be said to lack context and I really needed to see that context before I was thrown into the world where she was so perpetually angry at him all the time.

There was also too much made of her rheumatism, but nothing really came of it in the crescendo of the storyline. I kind of expected that to play in and I did not see that. I was a little disappointed in that.

I want to see a second book in this series. It would be great fun to examine how Drew and Marvin are sucked back into hunting demons as they pop up. Maybe this is a world where, like Marvin, there are different gradients of demons here and there who can be as fun as Marvin with different restrictions and abilities. Marvin has the capacity to have some amazing lines and I really want to see him come into his own.

All-in-all, Demon Dagger is a fun read and I think you are going to enjoy it just as much as I did.

-Bryan

A wuick and easy read that I read in one very short sitting. It was fast paced and atmospheric but it definitely lacked something. I excpected to feel creeped out by this book especially after reading the blurb but it just kind of fell flat sadly.

Demon Dagger was a very easy and fast moving read, which lacked much depth or scares, but was a decent distraction for a few hours. The blurb compares it to the long-running TV show ‘Supernatural’ which is a fair enough comparison. The main character Drew Price has the ability to see demons walking in the disguise of people. The plot jumps back and forward to when he was just learning his trade as a hunter and to the present day, when a powerful demon returns seeking revenge for Drew and his mentor sending it back to hell some years earlier.

I found the demons to be rather bland, almost caricatures of what you might expect them to be, and if you are after demons like you might find in an Adam Nevill or Ramsey Campbell novel then they lack that kind of kick. The novel picks up when the demon Nicobar steals the soul of Drew’s little son, who immediately starts hurting other children and small children. This was good stuff and the novel concerns Drew trying to find a way of killing the demon for good.

This novel was fine, but was just a little light on detail and atmosphere for my taste, but still a punchy easy read.