1992 comic fantasy, first of the Pine Cove series. Travis has been
living with the demon Catch for nearly ninety years – the immortality
and invulnerability aren't bad, but the murders are getting to him.
He's finally tracked down a way of ending the pact, but it won't be
easy.
In style this feels quite heavily influenced by the early Tom
Holt, but it's not a direct copy; it also incorporates notes of
Florida Weird in the Carl Hiaasen style. Of course it's California
Weird, but it's the same sort of population of losers and wannabes and
minor perverts, trying for their own tiny local goals and causing each
other to stumble in the process.
The writing in general, and characterisation in particular, are very
crude; this is a first novel, and it shows. Another first-novel
problem is the amount of stuff going on; many of the subplots could
be expanded to full length in themselves, but as things are they don't
get enough time for proper development.
One can see a potential talent here and a sense of interest in the
subject matter, but pacing is very variable, particularly when things
grind to a halt for a chapter to give us yet another character's
backstory. There are no out-and-out villains (except Catch), which is
good, but nobody's much of a good guy either. A complete loser whose
wife has walked out on him gets her back at the end, apparently merely
because he chose the right side, because he certainly hasn't changed.
(And how does he come up with a load of expensive camera equipment
when we've specifically been told earlier that he sold all his kit?)
It's OK, but not at all great. Followed by The Lust Lizard of
Melancholy Cove.
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