Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

Book Review

Matthew Johns

The main protagonist in this book is Fox D’Mora – Death’s godson. Yes, godson to Death – chap with a big sickle, white horse, hangs around with dead people. Also, apparently has a bit of a penchant for a game that he runs for the gods and immortals, at which he is very rarely beaten (more on that later).

Fox is, frankly, a bit of a cad – uses his godfather to convince people he’s a medium and tries to sleep with as many of his clients as he can. But he’s also been a little unlucky in love, so perhaps that’s his way of hiding his pain and preventing it from happening again. And who am I to judge, anyway?

Viola Marek is an estate agent, and a vampire, but tries her best to hide it. She’s even joined a support group with other supernatural creatures, getting access to what appear to be juice boxes, but actually contain blood, in an attempt to control her cravings. Luckily, she was bitten (well, technically, had her liver eaten) by an Aswang, a shapeshifting Filipino vampire. While that may not seem terribly lucky to most of us, it does at least mean that she doesn’t have many of the characteristics of European vampires. She can go out in sunlight, isn’t particularly bothered by crosses or garlic, but on the downside, she does turn into a cat at night, so that could probably be a bit of a pain at times.

Viola is trying to sell a house whose previous owner was horrifically murdered. His ghost haunts the house, making selling it quite the challenge, so she calls in a medium to resolve the issue. When Fox turns up, for it is indeed he that she has commissioned, and tries his usual methods for communicating with the dead (i.e., asking his godfather to talk to them as he himself cannot see or hear them), he finds out very quickly that his godfather has disappeared.

Thus begins a quest to solve the murder of the ghost, as well as the disappearance of Death. Luckily, Fox isn’t on his own, as well as Viola and Tom the ghost, he’s also got the assistance of Isis, a demonic personal trainer (although I’m sure some might argue that most personal trainers are somewhat demonic – not me, though), Mayra, a rather sharp-tongued angel, and Cal, a reaper who is in love with Mayra. There’s also an immortal demi-god named Brandt who loves to travel between the various realms, sleeping with all and sundry, stealing whatever he can get his hands on.

In the hands of a lesser author, such a complex cast of characters could quickly become confusing and convoluted. However, Blake handles this admirably. Letting the story and the rather complicated relationships between the individuals flow and unfold smoothly. Her style of prose feels smooth and classical, with the dialogue between characters snappy and sparky, with snarky lines aplenty for all. Humour is rife within her writing, not laugh out loud slapstick, but a clever, warm humour that sits well within the breast of the reader. The pantheon of gods and immortals within these pages features many familiar names taken from a variety of different religions and regions of the world. The chief villain Volos is the demon king of vice. He’s a bit of a naughty boy, with the usual take over the world vibe, but that’s pretty much what one has come to expect from demon kings these days.

If I had to describe Blake’s writing in one word, it would be ‘clever’. Not clever as in a smart-arse (or smart-ass for our American readers), but clever as in educated, intelligent, interesting. I did at times feel that in the dialogue between characters, particularly between Fox and Brandt, that there were things unsaid that I was missing, but it didn’t alienate me as a reader, instead it made me feel like I should be paying more attention.

This is a great book – interesting, intelligent, funny, heart-warming at times. One of the quotes on the back cover describes it as a ‘classic Blake romp’. This is my first of Blake’s books, so if this is what is to be expected from the author, I very much feel that I will be exploring more of her work in the future.