Legacy of the Demon, (Kara Gillian #8) by Diana Rowland

Kara has had her power cut and is isolated away from the demon lords (except one). But she has no time to just sit back without power – her best friend is bereft, her baby is missing

And the world is under siege – there are rifts appearing everywhere, spewing out demons, some of them completely unlike anything Kara has seen before. The world knows about demons – because they’re under constant attack and have very few experts who can actually fight back.

While the demon lords are overwhelmed trying to stop the end of both their worlds.

I actually had trouble getting into this book. Because it’s all there! This book series is now eight books long and it’s all in this book. All of it. Things that happened in all the seven books before this, all that rich world building, all those dramatic events, all of those amazing storylines and characters and world building – it’s ALL THERE

Honestly, I wish, sincerely, that I had the time to start again on book one and appreciate every little part of this amazing story because I think this is really the only way to truly absorb the hugeness of this book. Especially since it has been a year since I last read this excellent series.

This reminds me of just how very rich this world is and how much has grown from the very beginning and is still growing. This book contains so many absolutely amazing developments, revelations which builds so much more on this word. I love that there is more to develop, I love that there is so much more to this world than we have seen and that when we finally thought we had so many answers it actually turns out…

Yes I was always going to use this gif

In any other book I would yell “too much!”. And I’m not even sure why I don’t on this one. There’s so much here. The world building grows exponentially with revelations about the demon world, the nature of potency, the nature of the Demon Lords, the rifts, the demon clans, the history of the demons – that’s all huge world building developments. It’s immense and makes the whole world look so much different and have so much potential for more stories. Then we have Kara’s relationships, Mzatal, her aunt, her own history, her power, her new friends, her old friends. There’s amazing complexity like how she deals with Rhyzkhal.

Vengeance of the Demon (Kara Gillian #7) by Diana Rowland

The demon world is in chaos, too many lords out of action is causing more and more anomalies, more and more disasters to rent the world apart. Katashi, master summoner, perhaps even their leader is making things worse with his hasty manipulation of the nodes to create a permanent gateway from Earth to the Demon Realm. It isn’t going well

On top of that Kara is suspected for murder, Jill is pregnant and no-one knows what demon lord Szerein is up to…

I almost forgot how huge this world, series and plot lines are. It’s only after so long – so very very long – between books that I realise how much there is and how much I have to remember and re-immerse myself in

And it was so much fun doing so. The world is so intricate with the demons, the demon worlds and all the magical forces that the demons and Kara and her friends have to juggle and balance to try and stop it all falling apart. It’s all so extremely complex yet wonderfully original as well. It’s just all so different from everything else I’ve seen before which alone makes it worth reading over and over.

This book just adds further complexity and levels and interesting mystery to the wonderful depth we already have. The development of the demankh, these shadowy demon advisors to the demon lords is a wonderful mystery I can’t wait to delve into. What exactly is going on with Szerain now he is free from his disguise as Ryan is another one I am dying for more info from. And Jill’s child – the implications of it and what Kara thinks she now knows about the demankh and demon lords is another vast storyline to explore with all kinds of implications and possibilities with so many of the other characters.

Even though there’s less of Jill and Kara (who are awesome together and there always need to be more), there’s a lot of excellent character interactions in this book which does a great job of allowing the characters to be unreasonable, broken, irrational and even arseholes without any of it being annoying. Because they can bounce off each other they can be imperfect, emotional, hurting people struggling and acting out and it still works because there’s always someone there to talk to them, help them work it through and set them back or sit them down. Idris can lash out in rage and pain over his sister’s murder – but he will reach a point where Kara or Bryce or Pellini will turn round and draw a line. Kara will wallow in guilt or grief until one of the others shakes her out of it. They can be irrational emotional beings without it consuming their characters or derailing the plot because they’re also balanced by both themselves and by each other

Fury of the Demon (Kara Gillian Series #6) by Diana Rowland

Kara and Mzatal are desperate to find Idris before the coalition of Lords holding him use him for whatever nefarious plans they have. After months of training in the demon world, she has to follow the trail to Earth, reconnecting with all her old friends – and dealing with the changes they’ve made in her absence

But retrieving Idris is far from simple, even with a demon lord as powerful as Mzatal – great power means little if there are innocents in the cross fire, and less when you don’t even know what sinister forces you’re opposing. Even more complicated, Ryan’s cover for the exiled demon lord Szerain is cracking and Zack, one of Kara’s greatest friends, is torn with his loyalty to Rhyzkahl, Kara’s greatest enemy; can she even trust him any more? And what about his relationship with her best friend, Jill?

And under it all, Rhyzkahl and his fellows are still determined to have Kara.

I could see the disaster racing towards me and, like all the best horror movies, I just couldn’t stop it. It seemed simple, just a little reading before going to bed.

At 2:00am I was still reading. I knew I should put it down and go to sleep, that would be sensible.

At 3:00am I was still reading. Things were getting dire, all common sense dictated I should put the book down… just one more chapter.

At 4:00am I had actually tried to go to sleep 3 times but each time I made some easy excuse to read just one more page

I was saved at 6:00am, when the book ended. Though I did have 10 minutes of shocked disappointment that it did end. Who said it could end?

There, it’s awesome – go buy it.

What you want more detail? Fine. Let’s start with a quasi, almost, sorta criticism. This book actually starts fairly slowly – so slowly that, for a brief, terrible moment, I suspected this may not be as toweringly awesome as the previous books in the series. But there is a reason for that slowness – there’s a lot of recapping and reminders, telling us who everyone is, the demons, the world, the various magics and the many events that have come together to get to this point. It’s a problem that can hit any book series once it gets past book 5 and especially for a series where we have moved and changed so much since the first book. Normally I’d say just to not bother, recapping 5 books worth of content in a few chapters never works – but in this case it isn’t even recapping for the sake of recapping – all of this vast amount of information was relevant to the plot in this book. Much as it made for a slow start, I can’t say the recapping was unnecessary.

Review: Touch of the Demon by Diana Rowland, Book 5 of the Kara Gillian Series

 It was awesome, go buy it.

Why are you still here? Go go now! Go buy and read it?

Have you read it yet? Then what are you doing here? Get reading! Never mind sleep, read, people, read. What, you haven’t read the previous books? Go read them too!

Ok, now I’m assuming you’ve read it, you’re allowed a brief diversion before reading it a second time.

I can’t even begin to recap this – so much happens and to truly grasp it I’d have to spoil which would be a crime. Kara enters the demon world, finds out so much she knew was wrong, discovers a whole new reality, discovers so much more about her magic – and a lot more about the Lords, who she can trust and who she can’t.  There are many twists in that, some awesome world building, a great plot and some excellent characters.

There was so much to love here. Kara is plunged into the demon world where everything is so different yet so similar to Earth. The lands and settings are described beautifully, enough information to get a true sense of the place while at the same time not drowning us in unnecessary detail or pages and pages of over the top description. I just loved the setting here and how it, in turn helped describe the demons, the different forms, their lives, the way they behave (like the demon snowball fight – which was awesome) without needing to create Wikipedia articles about each kind. We got all the information about them and them much more filled out by these events and daily behaviour than ever we could through dry lectures.

And info dumping was always going to be a risk here. Kara arrives on this brand new world, she’s surrounded by every kind of demon and she discovers that a lot of what she (and other demon summoners) thought they knew about the demons and the demon world was laughably wrong (I loved that as well, how her old knowledge wasn’t infallible). Then we’ve got to learn about the 11 demon lords, what actually happened to Szerin, the past cataclysm that nearly destroyed the world, the blades, this alien force, the groves not to mention Kara studying bran new forms of summoning and using symbols.

There was a lot of information there and none of it was dumped. Of course some was lectured in a teaching situation but it was all really well balanced. The pacing was excellent, events prevented us having long screeds of info. When Kara is traumatised it is presented respectfully without Kara getting over it over night and without endlessly melodramatic pages of angst and navel gazing – and she has ongoing issues, especially about trust and her appearance, that stem from that. It’s a very natural, very real presentation of her as a survivor and, again, is balanced perfectly with the plot and the world building and the exploration to prevent us having pages and pages of repetition or dry exposition that just drags. Kara doesn’t trust people around her, for obvious reasons, but it never reaches a point of foolishness or the whole plot scuppering over Kara failing to see the obvious out of sheer mistrust – even though it takes a long time to ever gain her full trust. Again, an excellent and real balance.

Review: Sins of the Demon by Diana Rowland, Book 4 of the Kara Gillian Series

People are dying around Kara Gillian again… though apparently from natural causes. Except, they all died the same improbable way, and they all have one connection – Kara. People Kara had every reason to want dead.

Then we have portals, hidden portals around the city, all of them linked both to each other, and to the mysterious deaths. There is something big behind them – but who and what that is a long and confusing mystery.

Along the way we learn so much about Ryan, about Kara herself, about the world and all with more surprises than I ever imagined to come.

All in all, I can’t summarise more of the plot without giving important things away, because it’s so subtle and so wonderfully put together. It’s also very focused with limited side plots and distractions.

I did not see so much of this book coming. I’m still kind of shocked from it. It’s rare for any kind of detective story to so completely catch me by surprise, but this one blind sided me. I didn’t even come close to imagining the bad guy was the bad guy – but nor was it ridiculously convoluted or unimaginable. More, the clues were beginning so early and they were there and I could see them – little things she did, little changes, the sort of thing you don’t realise the significance of until looking back and then you go “oooooh, I see it now!” And isn’t that a classic sign of a good detective work?

And the story and the mystery was perfect. Honestly, this was a complete “can’t put it down” moment. There’s so much to the world and the pieces are all there but they’re not coming together and I was just driven to keep reading to find out what exactly what's happening, what’s behind everything, what are all the secrets. The whole huge world is coming together and revealing more and more of itself in fascinating ways, the mystery, the demons, the plots of the demon lords – it’s fascinating and intriguing and exciting and fun. A great combination of police drama with fantastic supernatural elements

Some of the praise I have for this book is praise that I’ve said before for the series, but it needs repeating because it’s just as good in each book. We can clearly see that Diana Rowland has police experience. I don’t think there was as much class commentary in this book, but nor do I think there was the opportunity for it though we did see, yet again, a powerful official trying to abuse his position and how common and easily it is done unless the rank and file (and police chief) are furiously resistant to corruption. If anything, this book was much more personal to Kara, it was more about her than any of the other books and very much about cementing her relationships as well. Interestingly the pacing for this book was still excellent, and I say excellent because the story didn’t have a large number of side-plots to fill the gaps either. Usually any detective story has quiet moments that need filling to keep the story moving and tense – but here we had Kara’s own life and relationships to fill the gap that were more than entertaining enough to keep things moving.

Review: Secrets of the Demon by Diana Rowland, Book 3 of the Kara Gillian Series

Kara Gillian is out for another mystery in Beaulac. It starts out peacefully enough – a stalker threat against a popular musician – but becomes much more complicated when the stalker is shown to be non-human

And then the bodies start piling up – bodies that aren’t so much unconnected, but have so many different connections it’s not sure which ones are actually relevant and the reasons behind the killing. Add in that the arcane forces being used in the attack are beyond Kara’s knowledge or experience and we have both a mortal and magical mystery to solve. And, of course, she has to manage this while negotiating the standard problems of the justice system and keeping her secret, secret. As well as the dilemma of what to do with a case you cannot prove?

At the same time Kara continues to have her confusion relationship with Rhyzkahl in her new role as his Summoner as well as juggling her mortal relationships – especially with Ryan. And even more so as more of his past becomes known.

I’ve said before and I’ll say again about this series - the plot was well written and paced with enough side issues to keep Kara interesting during the slow parts of the investigation but not too many that we’re distracted and bogged down. It had enough detail about the investigation to make it feel real and realistic, enough clues to keep us guessing but enough mystery to stop us knowing the answer too early. There was also well maintained meta-plot and character reactions without any excess or dull scenes dragging the book down. I think perhaps, in an effort to make each book stand alone, we have scenes and settings described more than is necessary (the dimensions of Kara’s office, for example) but it’s not a major issue by any stretch

I actually like how many people are now in on Kara’s secret, though your mileage may vary. A little hoop jumping to try and hide the supernatural is fine, but considering her job and the people around her, Kara keeping the secret from so many would rapidly become untenable. Her ability to solve crime would involve pages and pages of desperate cover up and/or convoluted luck brushing everything under the rug. I really like the way it’s done, she has a small circle of people she can trust who know what the real score is and none of them are in vast positions of influence for it to be abused for Deus Ex Machinae reasons. Also it means she has a Scooby gang, I like a Scooby gang, I do. Speaking of the Scooby gang, I also have to praise the banter between Kara and her friends, it never fails to make me smile

And, of course, we had a lot more backstory hinted at and revealed with Zach and Ryan. There are still far more questions to answer (and I am dying to know) but we’re getting a few more revelations with each book – the meta-revelations are moving on through the series preventing it being a lot of “monster of the week” books. In fact, there is general growth – Kara’s relationships, Kara as a character, Kara’s knowledge and power as a Summoner (without her developing massive new super powers every new book, which, yes irritates me). It makes not just the books well paced, but it makes the series well paced as well.

Review: Blood of the Demon, by Diana Rowland Book 2 of the Kara Gillian Series

Kara Gillian has a new case - there are more bodies piling up and while they seem to have natural causes (or common murder causes, anyway) there’s something more about the bodies. They’re completely ripped of all their essence, all their life force unnaturally torn away - and its getting worse. She’s again faced with investigating the murders as a police detective, but also using her arcane abilities and somehow passing that under the mortal authorities’ radar.

Worse, she has so few people to turn to, so little sources of information. Her aunt is in a coma and the only one who can tell her what is happening - stop the killer and bring her aunt back - is Lord Rhyzkhal, the sexy and powerful demon lord. Who, in turn, has his own agenda. He wants Kara to be his summoner, to give him a toe-hold in the world. And even a taste of his knowledge gives Kara abilities and knowledge far beyond what she had before.

But even with all these complications it gets harder when other strange demonic creatures push themselves into her reality - and Ryan, her friend, confidant and FBI agent seems to be keeping more secrets than she realised.

To start with something I love about this series - we have more excellent class commentary. While the last book showed us expertly how easily and quickly the poor are neglected and forgotten by law enforcement, here we saw the other side of the coin. The rich expecting kids gloves and gentle treatment. The power of being rich and influential and connected is showed again and again in this book. The power and ease of being a corrupted judge, of looking after one’s own, of protecting your own little clique and circle are repeatedly referenced. At the same time the point is strongly made that the same levels of drug abuse, domestic violence et al all happen in these wealthy subdivisions as in poorer areas, but they’re much better covered up. But, again it is done without lecturing or infodumping.

Kara Gillian is still a fascinating character. She is intelligent, has powerful amounts of common sense. She has a temper but it flares when appropriate and not completely unrealistically and foolishly. She is driven and drives the story, she’s overwhelmed by the sheer amount she has to deal with, but she does deal with it. I don’t think I’ve found many protagonists in this genre who are as human as Kara Gillian. As real - and as lacking in tropes that make me want to throw my e-reader down in disgust. One problem that has creeped in is a continuation of her discomfort over sleeping with Rhyzkhal which is coupled with Ryan’s disgust over her assignation with the demon - and her desperation for his approval. On the one hand I can see why Kara would seek friendship and approval since she has been alone a long time and very few people know about the Arcane - but at the same time her desperation for his approval and his judgment are more than a little skeevy making. Especially when she then decides to get revenge on Ryan’s judgmental attitude - by having sex with Rhyzkhal and feeling bad about it. I also don’t like her condescension and assumption of plastic surgery to most of the attractive women she meets, it’s a little, well, catty and again related to sexual shaming.

To contrast that we have something I’ve hardly ever seen - people referencing a promiscuous woman in neutral tones. Especially in a police drama, the minute a woman, especially a crime victim, is revealed to have sex with lots of different men then you nearly always have people saying “she deserved it” or “she got what’s coming” (or, if you’re reading Aurora Teagarden, everyone doing the “death to the evil hussy!” dance). I actually kept reading waiting for someone to turn round and say something that would make me cringe but they didn’t. The victim had sex with multiple men and while they were relieved that it meant there was a chance that their friend hadn’t killed her, there was no “that terrible hussy, you deserved it” or anything really close to it.

Unfortunately there are problematic elements. Firstly of erasure - there are very few POC and the ones that exist are either very small token parts (a black guard at the courthouse, a Latino law clerk at a funeral) or rather problematic (the undocumented Latina maid with poor English - who seems to love her employer). Both could have been worse but both were far from ideal and this erasure in Louisiana which has a very large POC population. Similarly there are no GBLT characters at all.

Review: Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland, Book 1 of the Kara Gillian series

Kara Gillian is a police detective in Beaulac, Louisiana and has finally had her big break - she’s moving from property crimes to homicide - and her first case is a doozey - the Symbol Man, a serial killer who has been inactive for years has restarted his killings. And Kara is in charge of solving the case - not bad for her first murder case.

Of course, she has advantages. Not only has she read all the files on the Symbol Man killings, but she also has her own Arcane connections. Kara Gillian is a summoner - as in, she summons demons. of course that doesn’t simplify anything, especially when she comes to the attention of the Demon Lord Rhyzkahl.

But then, it seems there is something arcane behind the killings and she has to tread the delicate balance between using her magic to discover the killer and what he’s up to, while at the same time keeping her case reality-based enough not to alert the police.

Reading this book, it is really clear that Rowland has a background in policing.  The victims of the Symbol Man are drug addicts, drunks and homeless.  This means they constitute a class of citizenry that are oft overlooked. Rowland makes it a point of saying repeatedly that this is why they were chosen and had the Symbol Man chosen someone from a different class location, that this case would be getting a lot more attention from both the higher up and the media. It is one of the better comments we have seen about class, with society’s callous contempt being starkly and unmercifully underlined. And, as in My Life as a White Trash Zombie, these issues are presented clearly and starkly, but without lecturing. It is however, disturbing that when questioned by Lord Rhyzkahl as to why she is working so hard to save people that she would not invite into her home, her only response is that this is the right thing to do.  It troubles me that Rowland went to such great lengths to affirm the neglect of the police department but did not take this opportunity to affirm the humanity and self worth of those who were essentially the prey of the Symbol Man.

This story takes place in Louisiana and as such the population demographics necessitates the inclusion of people of colour.  Rowland does take care to do so but unfortunately they only appear as the victims of the Symbol Man, which makes them, prostitutes, homeless, drug addicts etc,. This does not count as inclusion and in fact works to further stigmatize people of colour.