Review: The Infernal Detective by Kirsten Weiss

What: The Infernal Detective (Riga Hayworth #4) by Kirsten Weiss

Who: Misterio Press

When: May 21st 2013

How: A copy of this novel was provided by the author for review.

When Riga Hayworth finds a dead body in her bedroom a week before her wedding, it’s par for the course. When the corpse drives off with her fiancée… That’s a problem.

Riga knows dead. More intimately than she’d like. So when a murdered photographer gets up and walks away, she’s believes there’s necromancy afoot. And when she discovers that several of her wedding guests are under the influence of dark magic, she’s certain. But how can she catch a killer and stop a necromancer when even her nearest and dearest are lying to her?

Murder. The undead. Irritating relatives. The Infernal Detective is a fast-paced, paranormal mystery, where nothing is quite as it seems, and magic lies just beyond the veil.

Whilst The Infernal Detective is not my usual kind of read, I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Riga Hayworth finds a dead body in her master bedroom a week before her wedding. Not long after, she discovers that the ghost of her fiancée’s father is in the body of her fiancée, and that the spirit of her fiancée is now in the dead body. Sounds confusing, right?

I was surprised that I did not find myself floundering around with no idea of who was who or what was going on when I was reading The Infernal Detective. I had a little worry that I might, since The Infernal Detective is the fourth in the series. But Weiss has done really well in creating a story that can be read out of the context of the series, and still be enjoyed. Of course, prior knowledge of the series could have helped with a few things (like the similarities between Riga and Rita), but they weren’t integral to the story.

I thought the story was cleverly played out, and paced really well. There was enough action to prevent boredom, but enough non-action to keep the story from feeling overplayed. I liked the intricacies that were weaved into the story, and how each was slowly revealed to both Riga as a character, and me as a reader.

The magic aspect of The Infernal Detective was by far my favourite. For some reason, I have been reading quite a few books about necromancy lately, and I think the way Weiss has presented it in The Infernal Detective was really interesting. I loved the addition of Hecate, and the ‘in-between’. Reading about magic being an everyday part of Riga’s life was unique. The Infernal Detective is not your typical magical novel, and I really liked that. Magic was just part of who Riga was, and she didn’t think that made her uber special, or better than anyone else. It was just a part of herself, like anything else.

I would have liked to read more of Riga and Donovan’s relationship, but I am sure there is more of that in the previous novels.

The story regarding the shifting spirits, and the creepy mobster Vasily were intriguing, and captivated your attention. It makes me wonder what the stories are like in the previous Riga Hayworth novels.

All in all, I enjoyed The Infernal Detective. If you’re looking for an adult fiction book with a magical twist, I’d say give this one a go.

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