Book Review: City of Devils by @JustinSRobinson

Justin Robinson – Goodreads, Twitter, and CaptainSuperMarket.com
 

 

 

Justin Robinson

World War II was only the beginning. When the Night War ravages America, turning it into a country of monsters, humans become a downtrodden minority. Nick Moss is the only human private eye in town, and he’s on the trail of a missing city councilor. With monsters trying to turn him – or, better yet, simply kill him – he’s got to watch his back while trying to find his man. Or mummy, as the case may be.

 

Once, it was the City of Angels. But now, Los Angeles is the City of Devils…and Nick has a devil of a job to do.

 

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This book was hilarious. Set in post WWII, and apparently after monsters began walking Earth, you have the only human private detective in Los Angeles, trying to earn his cheddar and stay alive. A beautiful dame, because aren’t they all, comes into his office and asks him to find her missing husband. The same husband that the police (made up of werewolves/wolf men) think she murdered. It is as simple as that and kinda not.

Zombies, shape-shifting doppelgangers, pumpkin-heads, gremlins, witches…you name it, it walks the streets trying to turn the surviving humans left on Earth, and while dodging being turned, poor Nick, our trooper of a detective who can’t manage to smoke like a proper detective and is constantly having his manhood questioned, is trying to find a doppelganger actress’ missing mummy husband. He meets a variety of monsters, some helpful, some kinda not, and discovers more than just a mystery behind a missing councilman mummy in a convenient marriage with an illustrious actress.

I enjoyed the main character Nick’s point of view and dialogue – in what could be sometimes drawn out, his hilarious and often ill-timed offended tone breaks up the monotony of what is actually a pretty good, but simple mystery. It did seem to be a little bloated with filler, but I did enjoy reading about Nick and his constant avoidance to being turned into what is slowly becoming the ‘norm’ in the 1950s Hollywood scene. Genuinely interesting, very funny, and detailed for a strange slice of time in a world that is already pretty strange.

I definitely want to read the rest of Justin Robinson’s catalog of books. Giving ‘City of Devils’ a solid 4 out of 5 and highly recommend it.

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