Review: Crimson Night
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 5, 2013
Death and the Crimson Night by Marie HallIn a carnival of demons, the Carnival Diabolique - "the world's greatest traveling show" -  Pandora runs the Ferris wheel. She frequently watches the humans and meditates about how much they disgust her. Pandora is more than 5,000 years old and is only half-demon. She's unlike most of the others in her troupe in that she does have a large knot of goodness locked inside her that she isn't afraid to show.There are no fat, greasy, disgusting carnies with this group. They are all beautiful and show themselves off for the crowd. This is a carnival of the dark side. Here you can get your drugs, alcohol, and strippers all in one night or even at one time.Realistically though, the carnival is a cover for these creatures of the dark - of all kinds. Pandora has two souls. Hers and Lust - a demon. Lust must be fed sex to be kept under control. Thus it is with each of the creatures working the carnival. The food they need is provided by the customers of the carnival, the prey. But they only killed those who were evil, never those who carried the light.Pandora finds herself unnaturally attracted to one customer, Billy. That is fine, or would have been except Billy is what the demons and other supernaturals call a "priest." The priest's duties is to kill all supernatural creatures and he is very, very good at his duties. This priest has been following Pandora for quite some time. And this is only the beginning of the mystery.Marie Hall has an engrossing writing style that keeps the reader turning pages, wanting to know what happens to her characters. While it would have been nice to know more of the backgrounds of each of the key characters, the book is written in a way that is clear those details are forthcoming and are part of the overall mystery.The world building could have been a bit more complete, but there was so much going on, something had to give, and the world building was probably the least important of everything else. Again, this is something the author will probably elaborate on in future books in the series. This part of the "world", was focused primarily on the carnival and the world surrounding the characters who lived and worked there.I loved the idea of two souls occupying one body and having to keep the other half "fed" in order to maintain control. Hall definitely made this portion of the story clear. She has introduced a new breed of supernatural creatures and provided a much-needed break from the overdone clichés of everyday creatures.The book is chock full of intrigue, betrayal, sadness, and mystery on top of mystery. If you think you'll find all the answers inside these very well-written pages... you'll just have to read the book to find out, won't you?I received this book in exchange for an honest review from LoP (Lovers of Paranormal).