Snake Agent

Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams

When I purchased this book I thought it was a mystery, after all, it’s “A Detective Inspector Chen Novel.” And since I bought the book on-line, I couldn’t see the cover clearly, so that didn’t tell me anything either. I just knew it had come up as recommended for me, and had pretty decent ratings that I saw, so I was willing to take a chance.

Thus I was surprised when I got the book and saw the cover. A mystery yes, but also a supernatural fantasy.

Which was fine. Because I like supernatural mysteries. Lucky for me, it turned out more than fine–it was really quite good.

Detective Inspector Chen is a Snake Agent–a detective in charge of investigations that involve the supernatural. He works for the police department in Singapore Three, where although his supervisor appreciates his work, he colleagues are more than a little uncomfortable with him. Additionally, he has worries at him, and his Goddess seems to have turned her back on him, leaving him to fend for himself as he attempts to solve the latest mess to cross his desk.

I liked many different things about Snake Agent. First and foremost, I liked Detective Inspector Chen. He doesn’t have any easy time of things, and he keeps doing what he believes to be right, even if that doesn’t jibe with what his Goddess wants.

Of the secondary characters, I liked Zhu Irzh and the Badger. Although Zhu Irzh is a demon, he’s not really evil. He has a demonic nature, but aside from looks, many of the demons seem to be little different from most humans. And the Badger–well, that reminded me of multiple things, none of which I can place right now. I feel an urge to go back and re-read Chinese mythology and folklore to see if I can remember what it is about badgers.

The world building was also good. The world is just enough like ours to be familiar, yet still different, and being set in China made it seem even more exotic (at least to me.) Because we’re mostly on familiar territory, we learn bits and pieces about what is different in the world was we move through the story.

There was, I suppose, a strong element of horror to the story–at least as the demonic realms were described–but it wasn’t the type of horror that bothered me, which would be the scary kind. (I absolutely positively hate to be scared.) Things were gruesome, but gruesome doesn’t particularly bother me when I’m reading about it. Would I want to actually see the things described? Absolutely not. But reading about them doesn’t bother me in the slightest. So there’s your alert if you don’t like gruesome.

Because this is a mystery as much as a fantasy, there remains plenty of opportunity for continuing the series, while allowing this book to have a complete story arc. I have to admit I think this is one of the reason I am so fond of supernatural mysteries–they’re typically good at closing a story arc in a single book, which keeping the opportunity for sequels wide open. I’m not sure what is is, but I seem to have little patience right now for long series that go on and on with little or no resolution.

But as I said, the Snake Agent is not an epic saga book, so you can feel free to pick up and knowing that the story will be finished at the end of the book, yet there remain endless possibilities for more stories about Chen.

My only complaint is that I found parts of the mystery rather confusing. There were some steps that didn’t make a lot of sense to me, and were not explained to my satisfaction.

SPOILER
(rot 13)
V qb abg haqrefgnaq ubj gur lbhat jbzra va gur ovbjro jrer xvyyrq naq gurve fbhyf uneirfgrq. Svefg vg fbhaqrq yvxr n cynthr, gura vg fbhaqrq yvxr gurl jrer xvyyrq ol qrzbaf qverpgyl. Gur cynthr frrzrq gb znxr frafr va gur pbagrkg bs gur fgbel. Gur jbzra orvat xvyyrq naq qenvarq bs oybbq qverpgyl ol qrzbaf qvqa’g znxr n ybg bs frafr. Ubj jbhyq gung abg unir pnhfrq n gba bs gebhoyr? Ubj jbhyq gurl unir rkcrpgrq gb unir tbggra njnl jvgu gung? Vg whfg frrzrq vapbafvfgrag jvgu rirelguvat ryfr.
END SPOILER

If you like supernatural mysteries, then you should enjoy Snake Agent. I believe that I am going to place the paperback version of the next book in the series on pre-order.
Rating: 8/10

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