Review: Gods & Lies: A Novel

Gods & Lies: A Novel by Elizabeth Vail
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting world, in which Graeco-Roman-style gods live among humans, and you can (under certain circumstances) go and talk to them, and it's a secondary world (or at least the names of countries are different), but the technology level is that of our contemporary world.

This forms the background for a good solid murder mystery. The investigator is a priestess of Justice, and she's assisted by a former criminal informant/demigod who is trying to get his act together, and faces an uphill battle to do so.

The gods are privileged (in the original meaning of the word: they have a private law, which is different from the law that applies to humans), and the investigator has a big problem with that. Especially since the clues in the murder keep pointing to it having been done by a god, and she has no jurisdiction if that is the case.

The undercurrent of attraction between the ill-assorted pair (who alternate as viewpoint characters) adds to the already well-drawn characterization, the mystery is textbook in its execution, and all in all it's a good bit of craft, as well as being entertaining.

Copy editing is good, too, with only a few small typing errors. I'll be looking for more from this author.

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