Book Review: Hell Spawn by Declan Finn

When the devil comes calling, answer the door armed!

Everyone loves a saint – except the devil. And the devil has Tommy Nolan’s name, number, and physical address.

This wonder worker (wonder workers are saints who are still alive) is about to walk smack into trouble with a capital T!

The Story

Tommy Nolan is a New York City policeman living the good life. He has a wife and son, he has a good job, and no one dislikes him. Even the men he puts behind bars often think highly of and like him. There is not a person in New York who doesn’t…

…until Tommy stumbles across a strange smell no one else can pick up. On his way to work this morning, he has a strange experience when he grabs a purse-snatcher. Said purse-snatcher is a regular trouble-maker named Anthony Young, a boy Tommy has nabbed many times in the past for minor crimes. When the kid grabs a purse right in front of Tommy, he takes off to catch him.

Surprisingly, Tommy then sees himself coming at the kid from the opposite direction and clothes-lining him. He can’t explain it, but Anthony saw him pull off the trick as well. Neither of them know what to make of it, but realizing that the detective has him, he does not fight Nolan as the latter cuffs him and take him to the precinct to book him. That’s when Tommy first notices the scent of overpowering death and decay.

The scent belongs to a recently caught criminal who, when he sees Tommy, goes berserk and attacks him without reason. No one in the precinct is more surprised than Nolan, as he didn’t do anything to provoke the guy, who is not on drugs. While he isn’t perfectly clean, was found surrounded by dead animals, and using bloody clothes as a pillow, no one else has noticed the smell that Nolan scented on him.

Soon after this incident, Tommy is up to his neck in trouble. One of his son’s friends, a girl of thirteen, is found dead and dismembered in her home, to be followed shortly after by a neighbor. Then he and his family start experiencing hauntings that keep them up at night and prevent them from sleeping. If that weren’t enough, gangsters and other criminals start coming out of the woodwork to assault Tommy’s home, his police precinct, and those closest to him.

The pattern soon points to demonic possession of the killer, as the strange scent is detectable to Nolan in various crime scenes and attacks. Even the hauntings occasionally leave the nasty smell in his own home. Threats in gibberish and strange symbols add to the creep factor at the same time they complicate the case. How on earth are the police supposed to lock up, let alone prosecute a demon?

But Tommy is not the type to cut and run, and neither are his friends and loved ones. “Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition” is the unspoken refrain as he and his family set out to do battle with a demon intent on murder. After all, wonder workers are alive…

…everyone knows that saints are DEAD.

The characters

As a character, Tommy has a dash of Dean Koontz’ Odd Thomas mixed with John McClane, making him far gentler than the Die Hard star while being more ready to react with violence when threatened. As he himself notes, he lacks cynicism, but that does not mean he is naïve. He knows very well the depths of human evil and that there are Bad People out there. He just does not see a reason to let that knowledge get him down or make him give up.

Tommy’s partner Alex Packard is a great counterbalance to him. Cynical, jaded, and altogether worldly in the sense that he has seen too much of the worst of mankind, he keeps Nolan on his toes at the same time he provides a good look at how normal people would react to the frightening exposition of the devil manifesting in the world. With more grit than most, Alex faces the darkness at Tommy’s side without flinching, wisecracking his fear away so he can shoot straight and protect his friend.

The rest of his family, friends, and co-workers are likewise stalwart in the face of the increasing craziness of their lives. Even the criminals that he has thrown in jail or who are in jail on account of his arrest of them stand by and help him out. The only person surprised to learn he is a saint is Tommy; everyone else hears him explain it and says, “Yeah, that makes sense.” It is unutterably refreshing to see such an attitude from the ensemble for the hero as, rather than freak out at his powers, they simply shrug and roll with it because “That’s just Tommy.” If more urban fantasies did this, the genre would be far more entertaining than it is at present!

The world

The world is both saner and crazier than the present-day. Most of the best scenes surround Tommy and his family, who are unabashedly and wholesomely American. Stan Lee would be proud, as Finn evokes the same sense of the hero and his loved ones living the American Dream in the Big Apple that the owner of Marvel Comics did during his lifetime.

Between the gun fights and MS-13 attacks, taking time out for a meal with a happy American family is exhilarating.

The politics

The author lambasts a variety of sacred cows throughout the narrative. It is all meant in fun, but some may find it off-putting or irritating if they have had their sense of humor surgically removed. Otherwise, the story is not particularly political.

Content warning

The author describes graphic murders in PG-13 language. A reader has to stop and think to realize just how horrible the death he is describing actually is. There are also moments of impalement, dismemberment, stabbings, shooting, and death – lots of death.

That being said, the book is PG-13 and readable for any mature audience who wants a rollicking good story to enjoy.

Who is it for?

Hell Spawn is for readers who like thrillers such as Die Hard and want a good, meaty adventure with lots of pretty explosions and gun battles.

It is also for fans of Odd Thomas and Dean Koontz, as the book has a strong spiritual thriller vibe as well.

The horror is delicious without being overwhelming or putting a reader off, mainly because the continuous action gives one no time to stop and think about the darkness too much. For some readers, the spate of action to break up the horror will be a Godsend, as it keeps the story rolling and does not leave one wallowing in mortal terror and dismay.

Why read it?

Why not? It’s fun, fast-paced, and would be tooth-rottingly wholesome if there was less action in the narrative. No need to take this reviewer’s word for it – check out these other reviews here and here, as well as reviews of the sequels here, here, and here!