The Shadow Pavilion

The Shadow Pavilion (2009) Liz Williams

Detective Inspector Chen has multiple problems to deal with: his partner Zhu Irzh has disappeared, along with the badger, a Bollywood star/tiger demon is on the rampage, and someone wants to kill the Emperor of Heaven. Add to that the complexity of everyday life in Singapore Three, a new liaison position between Earth, Heaven, and Hell, and the fact that someone tried to kidnap his wife.

Interestingly, we spend more of the book with other characters–including the badger–than we do with Chen. We follow Go and his attempts to escape from Lara the demon tiger, we spend a good deal of time with the badger and then Zhu Irzh, as well as Inari, Chen’s wife.

We actually don’t spend much time in Hell in this book–at least not the Chinese Hell we saw so much of in previous books. We do spend time in Heaven, and learn about another realm, the between, where the assassin lives.

There is much for me to like about this series. First, the setting is unlike any other setting I’ve read, a mix of fantasy, science fiction, and Chinese folklore. Second, although the stories build upon one another, each book has a complete story arc–no cliffhanger endings here. Third, I love the writing.

Inari was wrestling with her own conscience–something that, as a demon, she is not even supposed to possess, but which may have come from that human ancestor, the ancestor who had brought such shame on their family, tainting it as she had with mortal blood. Inari had often wondered about that woman, since learning of her existence. She would be long dead, but what had happened to her soul? In Hell, presumably, since she had abandoned the Imperial Court of China and fled the shores of Earth for those of Hell. But i in Hell, then where? Not Inari’s own family home, that was for certain, unless–horrible thought–they had imprisoned her somewhere.

That single paragraph gives you a sense of Inari and her history, as well as the Hell from which she’d come.

This book had multiple mysteries, and, interestingly, since multiple characters were involved, multiple things happened at the same time, however, there wasn’t any confusion as to who was doing what where, which I believe is a good sign.

If you have not read any Liz Williams before, you should be able to start here without difficulty, although you may find it more rewarding to start at the beginning, with The Snake Agent.

Published by Night Shade Books

Rating: 9/10

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