City Infernal -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Edward Lee
City Infernal
Leisure Horror
April 2002
366 pages
$5.99 US

853 words


This
is the first Edward Lee book I have read. Most of his work is done by
the small press and I’m not a collector, so paying $40 or $50 or $150
for a limited book is not my idea of a good buy. It is for collectors
though.

City Infernal is about twin sisters, Cassie and Lissa.
Lissa is a bit of a slut apart from not having sex, yet. She blows a
bouncer so her and her sister can get into the Goth Bar/club with live
bands.

Lissa’s boyfriend is the bartender, and to get her sister a bit looser, they slipped Ecstasy into her beer.

Looking
for her sister, Cassie ends up searching the back rooms and ends up in
a storage room where Radu (Lissa’s man) makes moves of her, and she’s
so spaced out that she thinks she wants it, wants her sister’s man to
pile drive her. This is the night she’ll loose her virginity. And beer
mixed with Ecstasy has made her more than ready.

Into some
heavy petting, in walks the sister, naturally she blows her top and
shots Radu - dead, then blaming her sister, she turns the gun on
herself.

After the suicide, Dad moves with Cassie to the
South. He feels they need to get away from the city, he’d already lost
one daughter, he didn’t want to lose another.

And this is
where the story takes off and Edward Lee shows his writing excellence.
The haunted story house bit has been done to death - no pun intended.
But Mr. Lee adds a new dimension to it, an entry point into hell.

We
learn that ghosts are just images left over from the previous owner and
can’t hurt, see or touch us. We meet Xeke, Hush and Via. They are
Hell’s residents but are also known as Ex-Residents. We meet Satan’s
ex-friend and number one resistance fighter in Hell (Yes, resistance
fighter), his name is Ezoriel and is often trying to attack Satan’s
fortress. Each attempt is a failure. Real hope shows itself when he
learns (as Satan does) of Cassie, an Etheress in the city of hell. What
is an Etheress? Well, in short, she’s a saint of Hell (the first
saint), the Etheress must be a virgin and not be dead and be able to
enter Hell.

The book doesn’t start of very well at all. In fact
I was reluctant to read it. It starts with a description of Hell, which
I feel isn’t needed here as everything is explained in detail later on
when our heroes enter Hell. Which is a huge city, with TV, news and
bars and restaurants etc. It seems as if the start was added as an
after thought or by a request from the publisher. In fact I even wonder
with Mr. Lee actually wrote it, as it is far different in tone to the
rest of the book.

But, Edward lee has a rep in the horror
world and it’s one that I can endorse after reading this book. If there
are anymore Trade Paperbacks or Mass market books by this talented
author, I will certainly be buying them and will face a good read if
City Infernal is anything to go by.

The characters (even the
dead ones) are fleshed out into full real-life people. Cassie is the
quite girl at school who just doesn’t seem to fit in. Val and Hush are
standard chicks hanging out on the streets who are into Death Metal.
They’re the one you see walking around looking bored. Xeke on the other
hand is the guy who knows where to get everything and he knows the
rules and how to break them. And he does.

And there’s Dad, who
blames himself and his lack of attention for his daughter’s suicide and
Cassie’s attempted stab at it. He also has the hots for the
housekeeper, who we discover also holds a bit of a torch for him.

Throw
in the resistance force and Satan’s eternal battle with Ezoriel, the
hunt for Cassie’s sister, Lissa and you get one hell of a great book
that holds your attention all the way to the end.

There are
some overly long-winded passages that are not required in the slightest
as they are barely mentioned again in the book and many of the
descriptions of the demons are vague in one instance and over-done in
another.

Still, Mr. Lee writes like a man possessed, pumping
out this book with a tight story-line and believable characters. Wish I
could tell you more about the story of this book, but in doing so, I
would ruin some of it for those wanting to buy the book.

It is
also notable that the book ends without an ending as I have just
learned that Edward Lee is planning this as a three parter. YAY! The
second book, Infernal Angel has some bad reviews. Stay tuned in and
I’ll give you the real run down at a later date.