Review for Hunter's Prayer, by Lilith Saintcrow

Hunter's Prayer has a handful of intricate plot devices, one within another, and then they all click together like a nicely made puzzle with a pretty picture. A good, satisfying read. What seems to be individual cases mesh to become part of a bigger, more intense storyline with higher stakes. There's a bit of offhand foreshadowing too; for instance, the scene where Jill had the class of rookies was to follow up on a seemingly offhand line in the previous book, to explain how Weres transform, and probably to hint at a future event involving one of these rookie cops in a later book.

Lilith Saintcrow again plays on her sense of irony when terrible things happen in church and to religious people. The relationship between Jill and Saul develops further, as par for the course in the romance portion of this heady novel - we will see in the third book whether the two get an actual vacation and get married, or whether a pesky hellbreed called Perry gets in the way. He develops as a character too, getting even more complicated - because of his vague intentions - and more interesting than even Saul as a character, though Saul is still hiding something as well. We still haven't found out what it is about Jill that Perry wants aside from her body, or why he wants to turn her into hellbreed.

The idea of blood sacrifice is very tribal and Mayan, though prostitution is definitely an age old practice. Having the pimps' cowardice and suffering of the whores around again pulls the book back from the fantasy realm, reminding readers that of the cops-and-robbers and noir element of the series. Jill's reaction to each woman that she meets also adds a feminist worldview to our first person narrative, something thrown directly at the adult female audience. There are such people as male prostitutes too, though. There seems to be many characters who are around just to be sources of information for Jill, the cops excluded. Having the spirit creature around to almost-kill Jill and mislead her, when no one knew what it is, seems to be a cheap trick unless the series lasts more than three books, and there are plenty more new made-up creatures to come.

Lilith Saintcrow got my attention when Saul wanted Jill to stay with Perry for the night, for her protection. When Belisa, the Sorrow who killed Mikhail, arrived, the atmosphere came closer to the revenge oriented mindset of kung fu movies, except that she ended up not being the main villainess this time after all. The appearances of Cecilia, and later, the other girls, reminded me of how early young women started dating today, pushed into the fashionable world by consumerism and television icons. The veritable contrast between Jill and these girls seem to illustrate a generation gap, or simply an example of the differences in fate between people for the sheer power of luck.

I think my favorite scene was when Saul, Perry and Jill were all in the same kitchen, being allies and talking over the case in a civil manner, even though Saul and Perry obviously despised each other. It makes for beautiful intrigue and a tense undercurrent, a very specific kind of drama that I enjoy reading about. The following scene, with all the dead bodies in a single room in pieces, reminded me of this really dark game I used to play, called Diablo. There was one demi-boss, the Butcher, that dwelled in a room with an entire floor of bloodied rotting corpses, some of which are held aloft in the air by these spears that were built into the ground. I doubt Lilith Saintcrow has a role-playing game background, but I wouldn't perish the thought.

While I wasn't impressed by Night Shift, Hunter's Prayer made up for it, and I'm looking forward to Redemption Alley, particularly the scenes with Jill and Perry.