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Divine Misdemeanors: A Novel (Meredith Gentry, Book 8) by Laurell K. Hamilton
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Laurell K. Hamilton Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Format: Deckle Edge Published: 2009-12-08 ISBN: 0345495969 Number of pages: 352 Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Divine Misdemeanors: A Novel (Meredith Gentry, Book 8)Book Review: Fey Murders Summary: 5 Stars
Divine Misdemeanors (2009) is the eighth Fantasy novel in the Meredith Gentry series, following Swallowing Darkness. In the previous volume, Merry and her bodyguards were fleeing the slaugh in an Army convoy. They encountered Prince Cel in the middle of the road, claiming that he would protect Merry now that she is pregnant.
Nobody believed Cel and the humvees tried to bypass Cel's party. But illusions and other magics brought the soldiers out of the vehicles and then hurt them. Since Cel was killing her people, Merry finally took him out.
In this novel, Meredith Gentry is half-sidhe, a quarter brownie, and a quarter human. Merry is the daughter of Essus -- the brother of the current Queen of Air and Darkness -- and is a princess in the Unseelie Court. She had been offered the Unseelie crown, but declined for the love of Frost and for her unborn babies.
Doyle is part sidhe and one of Merry's bodyguards. He is the one whom Merry loves the most among the fey.
Frost is a minor fey who became more after he gained a wife and child. Now he seems fully sidhe and is only second to Doyle in Merry's love and the bodyguard hierarchy.
Rhys is a full-blooded sidhe and a former god of death. He is third in the bodyguard chain of command.
Barinthus is a full-blooded sidhe and a former god of the sea. He has been living in the beach house since release from the Queen's service.
Lucy Tate is a police detective who has worked with Merry on other cases.
Bittersweet is a demi-fey with wings. She is a flower fey who is bound to a particular type of floral plant.
Gilda is the fairy godmother of Los Angeles. She has magic, but is not as powerful as Merry. Gilda is not very friendly with the Princess.
In this story, Merry is called in by the police to advise on a killing of the demi-fey. The small fey had been dressed in traditional clothes to match an old illustration and posed with cut flowers. They had all died with slit throats.
After Merry, Doyle and Frost leave the crime scene, they visit the Fael Tea Shop to warn other demi-fey of the danger. But someone else has arrived before them. Bittersweet had seen the killers leave the circle and is now being hysterical in the backroom.
Merry calls Lucy and the detective sends two street cops to protect the witness. They arrive soon after the call and Bittersweet has a hissy fit. Merry calms her down and then Lucy arrives.
Bittersweet vaguely describes the killers, but Lucy cannot get much out of her comments. Then the demi-fey becomes agitated again. At the appearance of Gilda, Bittersweet hides in her hair. The police try to hold back Gilda's followers and a magic wand is used.
In the confusion, Merry is hustled out of the shop and down the street. Then the paparazzi find them, so Merry and her bodyguards duck into a deli catering to fey. The owner's wife turns out to be a relative of Merry's brownie grandmother. They have a nice cup of tea while the photographers and reporters crowd against the shop window.
Then the window crashes into the shop, injuring the foremost of the frenzied crowd. Ambulances arrive to care for the injured and the police also show. Somehow, Bittersweet escapes during the excitement.
Another staged killing is found and Merry is called in again to advise the police. While Merry has some wise suggestions for Lucy, paparazzi again come after Merry. Again Merry has to be escorted to her vehicle by police.
Meanwhile, Merry is having problems with some of her bodyguards. Several were recently released to her from the guard of Prince Cel after his death. They don't really know what to expect, so she goes out of her way to prove her different approach.
Part of the problem is with the female guards. Prince Cel jerked them around even more than his male guards. One has a flashback experience on one of Cel's sadistic mannerisms.
Other guards are impatient for their visit to her bed. Doyle, Frost, Rhys and others have regained some of their lost powers after bedding Merry. Barinthus feels that he is past due for such renewal.
This tale brings problems due to Merry relinquishing claim to the Unseelie throne. Some groups within the fey who have been allied with her are now holding back and waiting for whoever replaces Queen Andais. Others want Merry to reconsider and take the throne herself.
The story has more sex than most others in this series, which means many sexual antics. She even has little time for Doyle and Frost in this book. Yet she does include the new guards in her bed.
The estate is becoming crowded. Over a handred fey are housed within the house and grounds and many are mentioned within this story. The publisher needs to include a list of characters in these books.
The story only covers a few days, but contains a wealth of action and excitement. Read and enjoy!
Highly recommended for Hamilton fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of sidhe magic, police investigations, and a young fertility goddess. If anyone has not previously read this series, the initial volume is A Kiss of Shadows.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Summary of Divine Misdemeanors: A Novel (Meredith Gentry, Book 8)You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, my life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama. Among my own, I have confronted horrendous enemies, endured my noble kin?s treachery and malevolence, and honored my duty to conceive a royal heir?all for the right to claim the throne. But I turned my back on court and crown, choosing exile in the human world?and in the arms of my beloved Frost and Darkness.
While I may have rejected the monarchy, I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. My kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. I must get to the bottom of these horrendous murders, even if that means going up against Gilda, the Fairy Godmother, my rival for fey loyalties in Los Angeles.
But even stranger things are happening. Mortals I once healed with magic are suddenly performing miracles, a shocking phenomenon wreaking havoc on human/faerie relations. Though I am innocent, dark suspicions of banned magical activities swirl around me.
I thought I?d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. I had dreamed of an idyllic life in sunny L.A. with my beloved ones beside me. But it becomes time to wake up and realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever?even if they?re magical. Laurell K. Hamilton on Divine Misdemeanors
Meredith Gentry was created as a character so that my muse and I could have a break from writing the Anita Blake series. I?d written five Anita books in a row and was starting to have job anxiety dreams about her life instead of mine. I needed something different for my muse and me to play with. Merry was created to give me a different voice, a different world to visit. I guess she?s like a second child that you have so the first one won?t be an only. Then, like a parent that just didn?t understand that a second child doesn?t double your workload, but quadruples it, I was suddenly trying to do two different series at two different publishers. It went well since they?re both New York Times bestsellers. The audience for both crosses nicely and continues to grow with every book in a time when very few authors can say that. So it?s all good, but just like trying to juggle two kids instead of one, juggling two book series instead of just one presents its challenges. At the beginning keeping Anita?s voice out of the Merry books was the biggest challenge. I was used to her, and her voice and attitude were closer to my own, so Anita wrote faster, clearer in my head. Merry was that second baby that is nothing like your first baby, so most of what you learned about taking care of character A doesn?t help a damn bit with character B. Who knew? But there comes a point when you make peace with the second child being so different from the first and so different from yourself. You find the unique joys in that second person, as I?ve found the joys in the Merry series that are different from Anita. Anita fights me on paper and always has. She?s very much my rebel. Merry never fought on paper until the last book, Swallowing Darkness, and then she found things worth fighting for. She finally stood up and told me what she wanted and she was willing to do whatever it took to get there. I understood that. I let Merry?s desires, loves, and choices change where I had planned to end the first cycle of the series. Anita has thrown out entire last thirds of books by her choices, and even scrapped entire novel ideas because she?d simply grown in a different direction. If I did that for my oldest creation, how could I not do the same for my youngest creation? In fact, Merry found her voice so pure and clear that on the last two Anita Blake novels I?ve had to chase her out of my head so Anita could be loud. Now the biggest challenge is balancing the writing schedule between two bestselling series, two different publishers, and that thing called a real life. Doing justice to my two imaginary worlds, and still managing to have a life in the real world... that?s the true challenge.--Laurell K. Hamilton
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