Book Review: H.A. Goodman's Logic of Demons

H.A. Goodman’s debut novel, Logic of Demons: The Quest for Nadine’s Soul, is a fictional tale about the pivotal decisions you make in your life that may effect your afterlife.  What would happen if your pregnant wife was raped and murdered and you knew who the killer was?  Would you seek justice and kill the culprit?  It’s a logic “what if” question; one that we all ponder from time to time.  If that scenario happened to you…what would you do?

The book opens with our hero faced with that conflict. Devin Schwartz's wife is brutally murdered and he’s knows the killer.  With little hesitation, Devin slaughters the man responsible for his wife & unborn child’s death and winds up dead himself, suspending in a bizarre afterlife. Since his vengeance, he’s now deemed a “demon” and is recruited to work for The Company, selling something called “The Formula” to unsuspecting living humans.  With all the conviction that Devin started out with in this book, he certainly lost his bravado when it came to the afterlife.

The bulk of this book was about Devin fumbling through afterlife, attempting to reunite with his wife and child. There were many times were I wanted to smack Devin. Between The Company, the Angels, the Paladins and Satan herself, there was a point in the book where I didn’t know who was telling the truth. Devin acted – often to his detriment – too impulsively, causing more problems for our demonic hero.

The Company (aka Hell), ultimately tasks Devin with selling The Formula to a troubled teenage girl, Nadine. Using The Formula, Devin must convince Nadine to do something heinous. And who is Nadine anyway? In the story, Nadine is this talented anime artist whose parents are dead and she lives with her holy-rolling Uncle. But why her? There’s a billion depressed, self-loathing teenagers out there so what makes her so special? With all the tragedy bestowed on this chick, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. While reading this, I often thought that personal tragedy was the common thread between Devin and Nadine. Could it be that Devin is the key to save or condemn Nadine’s soul? I won’t tell you…you’ll have to find out.

Overall, I liked H.A. Goodman’s novel, Logic of Demons:The Quest for Nadine’s Soul. To be honest, the last 50 pages did it for me.  During Devin's quest, I found there was too much back and forth between afterlife characters/scenes that I didn’t appreciate.  But the ending….ah, the ending…redeemed the book for me. On my KilloMeter, I give H.A. Goodman’s novel, Logic of Demons: The Quest for Nadine’s Soul a 3.5.

Until next time…looking for a killer plot twist, try this book.

Mina B.