Official Review: The Devil's Hand by Mark Taylor

[Sarah G]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Devil's Hand" by Mark Taylor.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The Devil’s Hand- Book 1 Crossing Guard is centred on Angela Mitchell, a London librarian. Her life takes a change for the weird when she comes into the possession of collection of journals from North Africa. Something is bound to these journals, and now they have been disturbed, it has been awoken.

With the help of the devils right-hand man, Angela must send this daemon back to hell.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book as it is quite short. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The story had a nice arc and was written in a very relaxed way that made you drift off and lose yourself in the story. There was a nice level of intrigue at the beginning of the book that was a good introduction and foundation for the rest of the story. There were some clever plot twists in the story which held the reader’s attention throughout the book. There wasn’t much character development, however it is a short story, which is the start of a series so development will probably occur throughout the series.

I would say the negative point from the story is that it was a bit simple. The characters didn’t really have much of a task to accomplish and seemed to find it easier than I would have expected leaving a little disappointment at the end of the book. This point though should be taken with a pinch of salt as I do not have a lot of experience reading short stories.

Overall I would give this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I found the story very intriguing if not a little simple, however this is probably down to my lack of experience reading novellas rather than the story. I really enjoyed Mark Taylor’s easy going writing style with a nice hint of humour. It really fit the overall style of the book well. I am intrigued as to how the plot may develop over the series in both character and story and may be adding the books to my reading list.

I would recommend it to those who like a darker style of fantasy. Readers should be made aware that there are some very gruesome scenes in the book, which is not surprising as we are dealing with daemons and hell. There are also scenes of a sexual nature so this would not be advised for younger readers.

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The Devil's Hand
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Like Sarah G's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Taylor Razzani]

This sounds like something I'd like, usually the darker the better, thanks for the review! The ending sounds like a bit of a let down, but I guess it's a good thing it's a short story, so you don't have to invest too much into it.

[Sarah G]

Thank you .I think it's been left at the end like that due to it being a series. So if you like it there are more books to come. I did find it an enjoyable read

[kimmyschemy06]

Sounds like an interesting read. However, I'm not much into dark fiction and I feel uncomfortable reading about demons and such. Good job on the review!

[Sarah G]

Thank you. If you don't really like demons this book might not be one for you