Devine Enquiries 2

Devine Enquiries II: Witches, Ogres and Trolls by Martin Hull is the second Devine Enquires novel. I read the first book and enjoyed it immensely. If you can, you should read it—it’s worth your time. If not, you’ll still enjoy Devine Enquiries II. It’s a strong stand-alone novel.

It has been almost a year since I read the first book, and the reacquaintance of the characters and the world they live in, was appreciated. Martin Hull does a really good job world-building and. Introducing the characters to new readers so that the they are not lost, without making the readers of Devine Enquiries feel that they’ve heard that story before.

We meet up with our hero, Jason Devine, as he stumbles into a global genocide plot while investigating another supernatural occurrence in London at the behest of his old friend Hilary St. John Stevens, Chief Inspector of the London Police. Initially Jason was tasked with investigating statues all over London coming to life and killing non-humans—werewolves, vampires, fairies, goblins, and elves. His mission—to find out why and how the statues are being animated, and then figure out who, or what, is causing the chaos across the city.

It turns out that a very powerful coven of witches is behind the mayhem. Their end goal is to return the world to “humans only” by killing all non-humans. That would mean millions upon millions of deaths. So Jason, along with his partner Sam and his demon dog Gizmo, head out to find a way to stop the witches and bring stability back to London. Not an easy task—like I mentioned, these are very powerful witches who, it would seem, are impossible to stop.

But London isn’t the only locale where the witches’s dark magic will wreck havoc. Their evil plot extends to the different worlds where the non-human groups live—banshees, elves, ogres, trolls. Almost all of the mystical creatures face mass extinction, and Jason has to stop them.

Devine Enquiries II is a fast-paced urban fantasy. It’s an exciting book that follows Jason as he tries to stop the genocide, as the clock ticks down. What will happen to all his friends who are not human? To Sam? To Gizmo? To Jason himself?

Read Devine Enquiries II to find the answers. Read Devine Enquiries II for peek at a very different world from the one we know. Read Devine Enquiries II for just the fun of the story itself. You won’t be disappointed.

Devine Enquiries 2: Witches, Trolls and Ogres by Martin Hull is a short fantasy detective novel. The heroes are Jason Devine, the titular half-demon private investigator, and his vampire partner Sam. The story is told partially from Jason's perspective and partially from Sam's perspective.

Having not read the first book in the series, it took me some time to get to know the characters and their relationship. I would say this author did a below-average job of filling in the backstory from the first novel to make it easier for readers joining in at the second book to follow along. Usually in a series like this, the author will spend quite a few words early in the book giving a recap with any relevant information from earlier books. This author didn't do that, and I had to use a lot of context clues to figure out the relationships and what special abilities these characters might have. I think this backstory might be more important in a fantasy novel, as I didn't even know if the main character was human until a few chapters into the book.

Having gotten that complaint out of the way, this is a really fun book with lots of action and not too much exposition or world-building to get through. In the first section, the heroes are battling a band of witches attempting to cast a spell that will do great harm to the supernatural community. In the second half of the book, Devine and company travel through a portal to a dimension filled with trolls and ogres and end up helping them destroy a great enemy.

Jason Devine and Sam have a group of helpers working with them consisting of a demon dog, Jason’s demon father, a fairy, and even a few humans. I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Jason and Sam develop. The author did a lovely job growing their partnership and friendship into a romance. This is an easy read that would be enjoyed by fantasy lovers. The novel has a quick pace, likable characters, and a logical plot that was easy enough to follow even without reading the first book in the series.

My rating for this book is four out of five stars. I would have liked the author to include a more detailed recap of the first book. The novel could also use a bit more editing. There were several typos and small grammar errors, and one chapter was not labeled correctly to correspond with the narrator. For the most part, the errors were not glaring enough to be distracting. Overall, it was a fun read that held my interest with some sweet moments between the main characters, as well as exciting action scenes.