Review: 4 and a bit...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 24, 2014
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea  5★I really quite enjoyed this book. I found Niki to be a strong, quick-witted heroine. Her sidekicks were useful and there was a surprising amount of humour. It all came together in an interesting paranormal action/adventure mystery with excellent writing and flawless editing. There did seem to be a lot of history between some of the characters that made me wonder if I was really reading the first book, but I caught up soon enough.My only real complaint, two-fold as it is, was that the book felt very short. Amazon lists it at 160 pages, but I started it after dinner and was in bed before 11. In that time, I also bathed the kiddies and sent them off to dreamland. So even if it there is an physical page count of 160 somewhere, I bet it's double spaced.Also contributing to this perception of brevity was the way challenges were overcome very, very easily. If seemed like Niki and her crew waltzed in, said "be gone" and vanquished the big-bads effortlessly. Of course, it wasn't that simple, but it felt like it was. She managed to solve two mysteries and save the day twice in the 160 pages available. That didn't leave a lot for buildup, tension, or elaborate planning.Yes, it all felt too easy but that really was made up for by the humour and engaging characters. I can't wait to read The Devil is a Gentleman.------------------------The Devil Is a Gentleman  4★I'd call this another hit. I continue to enjoy Niki and Bobby's wit and the mysteries Murray sets up for us. I also really started to feel the influence of, or similarities to Kim Harrison's The Hollows series or Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Hunter (before the plots devolved into cheap erotica). It has a similar gun toting, strong heroine with a tendency to gather followers, fans and abilities as the series progress.Like the first, this book also felt short. It also introduced some interesting side characters, that seemed to have just been dropped unceremoniously and it ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger, which I hate, but the writing was just as crisp and well edited as in the first. I'm looking forward to book 3, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.--------------------The Devil Was an Angel  4★I'm still enjoying this series, but it's also faltering in much the same way as many other such series. There seems to come a time when the main character reaches a point where she goes from being an exceptionally powerful or talented whatever, to becoming the most powerful. It becomes unbelievable after a while and I think Niki reached that point in the book. Perhaps it will be pulled back a bit in the next one. I hope so. Because if she remains so all-powerful, what challenge can there really be? I'm holding off on my judgment on this until I finish the next book.Some major Biblical characters are offed in this book. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that one...and I'm not even religious. But it's difficult to fathom using preexisting myths and then ignoring or changing large parts of them in order to fit the plot. It's jarring. Be that as it may, Niki again proved herself to be a resilient woman of stellar moral fibre and imperturbable determination.