Practical Demon Keeping- MC

This week I'm looking at a book forwarded my way by HagelRat by Christopher Moore. I've never actually read any of his books before so I started reading without any awareness of the guy's style at all.

This book opens with a character called The Breeze, and the first chapter ends with the guy getting eaten by a monster.

The story is set in a cozy little tourist town called Pine Cove, and switches points of view each chapter to various characters who are all, in some unknown way, essential to the plot.

I warmed up to this book pretty quickly, even though I spent most of it thinking "Well this is random... who's that?" It's actually not until close to the end that all the characters begin to make sense.

Without spoiling the book too much, I'll just say that all the humans in this story are somehow (sometimes obscurely) involved (though they probably don't know it) in a supernatural battle between the demon, Catch, and the djinn, Gian Hen Gian. Both of whom were heavily involved with King Solomon back in the day.

Catch is temporarily under the command of naive ex-clergyman Travis (who is pretty close to about ninety years old, though still looks twenty) and Gian Hen Gian is forced to enlist the help of an old seaman, Brine.

It's difficult to review this properly without ruining it... but it's a brilliantly chatty book and all the characters are utterly believable- and totally quirky... the sort of people you'd expect in a diddy little seaside village. I love Brine for instance- he just completely suspends disbelief and goes with the flow, all the while being thoroughly amused by the whole situation.

There's a bit of romance thrown in, though there's a moment where you think "Well that's a bit weird" and even without that some of the interaction between all of the thoroughly batty characters is just stunning.

Apparently, this was Christopher Moore's first published novel (according to Wikipedia...) and so I assume it's the novel in which he plays with his style and plot most playfully, but not having read his other books, I can't really compare.

Anyway, it's a pretty neat novel, and a darn amusing read.

MC out