April 24, 2006

Book of the Week: WORKING FOR THE DEVIL by Lilith Saintcrow

I’d never read anything by Lilith Saintcrow, so I picked up WORKING FOR THE DEVIL with a few qualms. I wasn’t nuts about the cover, the premise sounded a little lurid, but I always like to find a new writer to feed my reading habit. I needn’t have worried. WORKING FOR THE DEVIL is a tough, sexy, sad, exciting book taking place in a future world where life is ruled by magic, and the Devil is accessible if you’re brave enough.

Dante Valentine is brave enough, and then some. The survivor of an upbringing that puts Oliver Twist’s to shame, Dante can chew nails and spit them out for breakfast. When a demon comes to take her to visit Satan, she can only say yes. The Devil has a job for her, and if she doesn’t accept the mission, she’ll die. In fact, her chances of survival even if she takes the mission are slim. Dante has already lived through so much trauma in her life that this doesn’t seem particularly unusual to her. To aid her in her task, the Devil gives her the demon Japhrimel to act as her backup. Dante has to call on her very few friends, beings as ferocious and lethal as she is, to help her in her search for the demon Satan wants to destroy; and she also has a personal motivation, because this demon, Santino, killed her friend years previously.

I found WORKING to be compelling and disturbing, and I look forward to reading more of Saintcrow’s books.

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I got in last night from Washington, tired but pleased. Since my roots are in the mystery writers’ community, it’s always great to get together with so many old friends at Malice Domestic, one of the best-run mystery conventions around. As you might guess from the name, Malice Domestic is a rather specialized convention aimed at writers and readers of the traditional mystery, often referred to as “cozy.” The hallmarks of traditional mysteries include: very little explicit violence, very little or no explicit sex, and the solving of the crime by an amateur sleuth. The exemplar of a traditional writer is Agatha Christie, of course. Modern practitioners include Carolyn Hart, Susan McBride, Denise Swanson, Marcia Talley, Parnell Hall . . . the list could go on and on.

I had the pleasure of seeing all of the above writers and many more. My friends Sharan Newman and Julie Wray Herman were there, and I caught a glimpse of the wonderful Jan Burke. I had breakfast with my long-time friend Janet Hutchings, editor of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. I heard a rumor Jerrilyn Farmer was there, but at a convention even that size it’s possible to completely miss someone, and I never even spotted Jerrilyn across a crowded room. Elaine Viets, Toni Kelner, Nancy Pickard, Dana Cameron, and I shared a panel moderated by Donna Andrews. To my delight, Barbara Hambly, who can write anything, was on a panel with me, though I never got to talk to her outside of that, as I would have enjoyed. I know I’m leaving someone out, and I apologize, in case any of my fellow writers read this. In addition to all this friendship, I got to meet with my editor and my agent, who wanted me to sign a contract for the Thai version of the Sookie books, a truly interesting concept.

So after a great and exhausting weekend, I’m back home trying to pick up the pieces and resume work before leaving next week on tour. I hope all of you have a more relaxed week than I, and I hope to see a lot of you on the road.

--Charlaine Harris