Review 105: The Demon Hunters by Linda Welch

The Demon Hunters
By Linda Welch

Copyright © 2009
CreateSpace
$ 8.50 Paperback
$ 1.99 Kindle edition & Smashwords edition
248 pages

We first met Tiff Banks in review 70 of Along Came a Demon. During the course of the first book, Tiff Banks is established as a person with the ability to talk with ghosts, who are referred to as shades. Tiff used her gift to assist the Clarion Police Department with murder investigations. That career came to an abrupt halt when she accused one of Clarion PD’s golden boys, Royal Mortenson, of being a murderer based on the say so of the ghost of a little boy. The actual murderer was Royal’s brother, who looks so much like him Tiff had difficulty in telling them apart, so she couldn’t blame the shade of a little boy for getting it wrong. The police department was a little less forgiving. And Tiff didn’t even tell the police department that Royal is a demon. Okay, so that is what Tiff has been calling those beings which have metallic looking hair, glittering eyes, and pointy teeth. Although, Royal has had his teeth capped.

Since Royal is now Tiff’s lover and partner in the detective agency they have opened, Tiff learned Royal is actually a Gelpha. But she continues to think of him and others of his kind as demons. The Demon Hunters opens with a comic scene in which Tiff convinces Royal to go after a kidnapped cat for the reward money, because she was feeling the pinch of being out of a semi-regular consulting fee. After speaking with a rather nasty ghost called Freddy, they got a lead on where the catnappers were located. Tiff then uses her bad-tempered Scottie, MacKlutzy to bring the catnapper out of the apartment while Royal, who has the ability to move at lightning speed, rushed in and out with the cat. Having little dogs of my own, I identified with the description of MacKlutzy squaring off with the catnapper.

If there’s one thing Mac hates worse than cats, it’s being threatened. He recognized that tone of voice. Terriers are fearless. They literally do not perceive any distinction in size or bulk. Something stood between him and a cat and that something threatened him. Mac attacked.

Following this fun, lighthearted case, Royal calls Tiff to come meet some new clients, Gia Sabato and Daven Clare. Gia Sabato just happens to be an enormously successful author who sprang out of nowhere eighteen months prior to the start of the story. Tiff is surprised when the case ends up being about the abduction of a Clarion Latino former gangsta, who is the lover of Gia Sabato. Tiff doesn’t really like her new clients and suspects them of being Gelpha in disguise. On top of that Royal is acting very strange and keeping secrets from her. Add to the intrigue, the mysterious arrival of a nineteenth century journal kept by a fifteen year old British girl on the travels to Burma, and you have a case getting more bizarre by the moment.

When Gia and Daven unexpectedly arrive at Tiff’s house and waltz right in, Jack and Mel, Tiff’s resident ghosts, go ballistic and try to attack them and force them to leave. And even stranger, MacKlutzy, who never met an ankle he didn’t want to bite, runs away from them as quickly as he can and acts scared out of his wits. Even though she is the one who hired Royal and Tiff to find Rio, Gia Sabato doesn’t want Tiff to have too much information about the disappearance. Frustrated by being kept in the dark by her clients, and fearful her relationship with Royal could be on the way out, Tiff just wants this case to be over. Once Tiff finally gets them to let her in on what is really going on, she finds out someone is seeking out and killing demons and their Dark Cousins. No one will tell Tiff exactly what a Dark Cousin is, but she quickly figures out that they really don’t get along with Gelpha and that it is taboo to even mention what a dark cousin is. Join Tiff and Royal on their hair-raising adventure to find The Demon Hunters.

I first read The Demon Hunters toward the beginning of the year, put together a draft of the review and scheduled it. Linda Welch contacted me and requested we postpone the review as she was making some changes to the manuscript. I was very interested in seeing what those changes might entail. Being a confirmed tweaker of my own novels, I completely understood the request and tried to wait patiently for the changes to be completed. Before I received the revised manuscript, I noticed the cover had been changed. The original cover is depicted to the right, and I think the cover pictured at the top of this review is a definite improvement. After reading the book, I understood what the original cover illustrated, but I don’t think it would have immediately grabbed the attention of potential readers.

The bulk of the changes to the actual content of the book are additional scenes which definitely add to the overall story. There is an added scene which takes the reader back to the first time Tiff ever saw a ghost. This was good back story information, and something I had been wondering about. Since Tiff didn’t see ghosts until she was an adult, the shock of it had to have an impact. Welch also takes the time to tie up a loose end or two from the first novel in the series, as well as building some additional animosity between Tiff and her client, Gia Sabato. All in all, the revisions were definitely worthwhile, and worth the wait for the now completed product.

The first time I read The Demon Hunters, it was in PDF format on my laptop. This time, I transferred the PDF to my Kindle to read it. The PDF conversion did okay for the most part, but there were a few issues, such as anything in italics appeared to have removed the appropriate spacing. Any dashes showed up as some sort of character in a box, and some of the formatting was off, such as paragraph indents, and some carriage return issues. Nothing significant enough to drive me back to the laptop to read the book. One of the benefits of using the Kindle to read the book over the PDF format is the ability to highlight text and input some notes, so I was able to bring up my notes to help me construct the review, a very useful feature.

Linda Welch pens her characters with authority, and you are instantly taken into the world of Tiff Banks and her demon lover, Royal. Her story contains action from start to finish. You feel like you know Tiff from the instant you pick up the book and want to stay with her as she jets all over this world and through otherworlds in search of answers. I’ll be anxiously waiting for the next installment in the Whisperings series.

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