Murder, the occult, religion and a race against time

Richard Montinari writes crime novels on the grittier/gorier end of the spectrum. They are not horror but he does describe the murders in the story with some relish so they are not for the reader who prefers traditional or cosy crime fiction. Kiss of Evil features Detective Jack Paris, a man with his own problems, chasing a killer in the city of Cleveland at Christmas – it’s the second he has written featuring this detective but I didn’t have any difficulty understanding the story even though I hadn’t read the first one.

The novel contains different threads which the author pulls together well. These include a murderer who has failed to be convicted on a technicality who is then found dead, and a serial killer obsessed with an occult religion and torture. Bodies are plentiful and there are plenty of characters involved in the story. In the end, the detective himself is caught in a trap and finds himself in immediate danger with seemingly no way out.

This is a fast paced story with lots of exciting moments and it is well crafted. The events are, of course, pretty unlikely but the author manages to make the reader feel the danger and the tension builds as the story progresses. I wouldn’t like all my reading diet to be made up of this sort of book but this was a quick and enjoyable read.