Cop and conjurer of demons

Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland – 1^st in the Kara Gillian series

Oh I am going to love this series.  I’ve had the first book (audiobook) for several years now but it said in my to-be-read pile.  I’m so glad I picked it up!  It reminded me a lot of the Hollow series by Kim Harrison (also known as the Rachel Morgan series).  Mark of the Demon is very thrilling yet quirky.  Kara Gillian is kind of a bad ass.  She’s quirky yet introverted.  She smart yet a newbie in both her fields.  She simple but complicated.  Confident but socially awkward.  I really enjoyed her character and can see that she will grow with each book. I wasn’t sure I was going to like Ryan Kristoff but I did by the end of the book.  He’s smart and likeable with a good sense of humor.  I think he and Kara would have a good partnership as detectives.  I’d like to see an hea later in the series but would rather see their friendship and trust blossom first.  Rhyzkahl is the yummiest Demonic Lord ever.  I really hope we see more of him in the series.  The demons in this book are not the Christian ones that we are used to hearing about, but Satanic ones that lean more of the fictitious/made-up-for-this-story kind.  Nicely done though.  I thought the mystery itself was well-plotted and well-executed.  I never would have guessed who the killer was.  The characters in this story are all genuinely likeable for the most part.  I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

Synopsis:

Why me? Why now? That’s what Beaulac, Louisiana, detective Kara Gillian was asking herself when an angelic creature named Rhyzkahl unexpectedly appeared during a routine summoning. Kara was hoping to use her occult skills to catch a serial killer, but never had she conjured anything like this unearthly beautiful and unspeakably powerful being whose very touch set off exquisite new dimensions of pleasure. But can she enlist his aid in helping her stop a killer who’s already claimed the lives’and souls’of thirteen people? And should she? The Symbol Man is a nightmare that the city thought had ended three years ago. Now he’s back for an encore and leaving every indication on the flesh of his victims that he, too, is well versed in demonic lore.  Kara may be the only cop on Beaulac’s small force able to stop the killer, but it is her first homicide case. Yet with Rhyzkahl haunting her dreams, and a handsome yet disapproving FBI agent dogging her waking footsteps, she may be in way over her head.

“You have the Fraggle Rock theme song as your ring tone,” he said, with a bemused look on his face. “You are so weird.”

5 unique-blend-of-urban-fantasy Stars!