 |
The Devil and Dan Cooley | Rating | |
| A | |||
| Holly Lisle and Walter Spence | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | Sympathy For the Devil, The Devil and Dan Cooley, Hell on High | ||
It's been months since God answered Dayne Kuttner's prayers and freed nearly sixty thousand denizens of Hell on parole, allowing them to roam free in North Carolina. And while the rest of the world is reeling from this miracle they cannot ignore, North Carolinians are suffering. The Hellraised can't harm them in any direct way, but nevertheless people are leaving the state in droves. The economy is plummeting. So when Dan Cooley, a radio deejay, meets Puck, a down-and-out devil, he immediately gets a great idea. He'll reform the devil in a public campaign, through kindness and examples of goodness! It'll help his station's failing ratings, and proof that the Hellspawned can change their ways might get people to return to the state. But will Dan be playing right into Hell's hands?
This isn't anywhere near as thoughtful a book as was Sympathy For the Devil. It raises no real questions of dogma, there's not really any philisophical or religious pondering in its pages. It doesn't provoke it in the reader, either. Or, at least, it didn't in me.
What the book does have is a much better story. The first was rather straightforward, really: a demon is trying to corrupt a good woman while avoiding being influenced by her goodness. Here, the situation is reversed. More, it is much less certain that Dan - and his friends, for he is hardly the only target - can resist the temptations Hell can offer. Dayne Kuttner was too good a person to ever fall prey to a demon's wiles, but these characters each have flaws that could well prove fatal. And the interaction between the three of them provides yet another layer to the tale.
The book goes by fast. In fact, it fairly flies. The story is, again, in typeface that's a little large, filling these pages with less material than it seems. More importantly, though, Lisle and Spence's writing is light and easy to read. There's plenty of humor, as well, but it is never hokey or stressed. This book is just plain fun.
| By Title | By Author | By Rank |