Review of Edwin Steelside searching out the devil

[Ifionayi Onosetale]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Edwin Steelside searching out the devil" by Bradford Bennett.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Actress Alexia Morrison dies in a theater accident, and Detective Edwin Steelside is hired by playwright Jorge to find out what happened. Edwin soon finds that everyone involved had a rationale for the incident and that the people she had gathered around her were not who they said they were.

This investigation quickly goes from Vancouver to Copper Canyon in Mexico and back, shining a light on secrets and putting Ed in harm's way multiple times. Edwin Steelside searching out the devil by Bradford Bennett is not only a superb crime novel but also rich in its themes of love, disgrace, and justice.

I love this book. The plot appealed to me a lot. Not everything that develops goes according to a straight-line pattern, and that formed part of what kept me interested. All the characters have really firm personalities; I especially like Ed Steelside for his razor-sharp focus and the way he investigates things in such a cunning manner. I loved when Ed narrowly prevented a catastrophic tragedy at a major event. It is rather a unique book, taut in texture and heavy on love, treachery, and redemption. The book was exceptionally well edited and error-free.

The only weakness in the book is the occasional slackness in telling. The labyrinthine plot demands the presence of a retinue of peripheral characters like Jerry Pavloff, Brandy Harris, and Jorge Vanskowski, along with subplots such as Ed's confrontations with his ex-wife and his flashbacks of Molly, which can be hard to keep track of and more often than not prove to be digressions. What really gets my disliking is how the coherency of the narrative is less diluted; it confuses me by being so cumbersome in tracing the flow, and it drags rather than adding momentum or tension.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars because of the unique plot and well-developed characters that make it very interesting, but at times they get very boring because of this. That is why I say it has an inconsistent narrative influencing my one-star reduction. On the other hand, the book presents the issues of love, treachery, and redemption very well. I would recommend this to fans of crime novels.

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Edwin Steelside searching out the devil
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