Mark of the Demon

Kara Gillian, Book #1

By Diana Rowland

ISBN#  9780553592351

Author’s Website:  http://www.dianarowland.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Kara Gillian is a demon summoner, a skill she learned from her Aunt Tessa, who has raised her since she was 11 years old.  Kara is also a police detective, who has recently transferred to the violent crimes division.  Three years ago, there was a serial killer dubbed as the Symbol Man due to the unknown symbol he leaves on each of his victims.  He was never captured. Kara encountered one of the bodies and felt arcane energy on it and she has been obsessed with the case ever since.

Now that she’s in the violent crimes division she has a reason to look at the Symbol Man case.  And, then more bodies start to appear.  Many think it’s a copycat since it’s been over 3 years since the Symbol Man was killing, but Kara senses the arcane energy off the new bodies as well and thinks it’s the same killer.  And, she is assigned as primary, despite never having worked a murder case before. However, the bodies are coming in faster than they ever have before and Kara fears that their murderer is building up to something big.  Something to do with the coming full moon.

And, when Kara tries to summon a lower-tiered demon, a demonic lord comes through instead!  A demonic lord that has murdered when summoned before.  But instead of killing Kara, he seduces her and she doesn’t know why.  He gives her permission to call him to her at any time, but that would leave a powerful demon lord on this realm with no boundaries to keep him in check.  He could help her with her case, but at what cost?

I wanted to like this book.  Its a bit different from the other novels I’ve read and so I liked the concept of it.  It read as a big murder mystery that delved into Kara’s aunt’s past.  However, the story seemed rather anticlimactic and a bit one-dimensional.  The book was okay, but nothing to write home about.