Divine Misdemeanors is the 8th book in the Merry Gentry series. This series as a whole has been a little light on plot and a little heavy on the sex and violence. This book is slightly different than the rest of the books in the series, there is an actual plot here, but I am not sure how this installment furthers the series any. The other books have also been heavy on court intrigue as Merry, the main character, has tried to survive fey court life. She is also in line for the throne to one of the fey courts and has spent the previous novels trying to secure the crown. In this novel, the main plot is a murder mystery and while interesting I am not sure it works for the series as a whole. I did find this book entertaining but it didn’t move as well as some of the other books in the series.
These novels take place in a world where fairies or the fey are real and very powerful. The Sidhe, the most beautiful and human looking of the fey, rule the fey world. The fey are split into 5 courts. The primary two courts are the Seelie court (sidhe court full of light and illusion–only beauty is allowed here) and the Unseelie court (Sidhe court that doesn’t turn any fey away no matter how terrible their beauty). There is also a goblin court, a demi-fey (small fey) court, and a court for the slaugh or the true nightmares of the fey world. In the previous books we learn a lot about the different types of fey and we also begin to see their fading powers return to them so we don’t know what any fey are capable of.
DISCLAIMER: If you haven’t read the other series you may want to start with A Kiss of Shadows. Reading this review will give away some of the key plots of the previous novels.
Merry is back in Los Angeles after having turned down the crown of the Unseelie court in order to save one of her consorts, Frost. Her arch nemesis, her cousin Cel, is dead. And Merry is pregnant with twins. So beyond the occasional problem with the press, all is well in Merry’s world. But then someone starts killing the Demi Fey in Los Angeles. The demi fey are small fey (what we would really think of as fairies). They look like small people with insect wings that can disguise themselves as the insects whose wings they have. Now, fey are magical and immortal, supposedly, so who is killing the fey and why? That’s were Merry and her men step in. Merry returns to her role as a detective to help the police figure out who are hurting the demi-fey. Can Merry find the culprit before anymore of her people are slaughtered? You will have to read the book to find out.
This plot seems a little slow compared to the other novels. In the previous books, we added multiple characters a book, and had a lot of sex and violence as Merry tried to keep from getting killed by something or someone in fairy and tried to get pregnant. In Divine Misdemeanors, she is removed from the court and the court is actually removed from her. She doesn’t interact with the court as much in this book since her Aunt, the Queen of the Unseelie court, has gone mad since her son was killed, and Merry is no longer trying to attain the throne. A lot of the court politics is gone, Merry has her Kings (six to be exact for two children-you’ll have to read the books to figure that one out), and she technically outside the court again for now. There are some power plays between her and her court of men especially Bartholomew who we haven’t seen outside the Unseelie court before. But like I said before, it doesn’t further the series plot any, we don’t learn much about the status of either court or what Merry is likely to do about her situation outside the courts. There are very few magic awakenings or power returning visions (Merry is also a conduit for the Goddess to return power to the Fey) in this book where the books before have been riddle with them. Therefore to me, this book seems stagnant. We don’t even learn very much more about any of the Characters.
Merry is still sacrificing for her people and doesn’t want to be seen as weak. Frost is still stoic Frost. Darkness is still Merry’s right hand and good at protecting her. Rhys is still the fun loving, detective who is also a Death deity? Bartholomew who was a sea god is the only one who gets fleshed out a little, we see him be a little angry and disrespectful of Merry and his lot amongst the other men. But everything else and everyone else seems to stay the same. It’s almost as if this book takes up time while we wait for Merry’s children to be born.
Overall it wasn’t a bad read, but it’s not my favorite. It’s one of those books writers write to make more money. Read it if you are in to the series if not give this one a pass. Hamilton does write well and this one is no different it just doesn’t take you anywhere.
