etective Inspector Wei Chen is the occult expert at the Singapore Three police department, equipped with a working knowledge of magic and a license to travel into hell itself. A veteran of the department, Chen has made a career of facing down monsters and dispelling curses, but now, as he approaches midlife, the dangers of his job have been magnified immensely by his marriage to the beautiful demon Inari. When Chen rescues her from an arranged wedding on the infernal plane, bringing her to live with him on Earth, he is obliged to accept seven years of penance ... and, worse, to forfeit the protection of his patron goddess.
In the new Liz Williams novel, Snake Agent, Chen investigates an illegal trade in the souls of the innocent. Acting on a tip that the ghost of a recently murdered teenager—one whose spirit was supposed to move upward to heaven—is instead loitering near the entrance to hell, Chen finds the girl's mother has been possessed by a demon. A hastily organized exorcism fails spectacularly, and soon after that it becomes obvious that the unfortunate Pearl Tang is not the only young woman whose soul has been pilfered from the heavenly path. Next a jurisdictional issue complicates matters: a demon from hell's vice squad, Zhu Irzh, has found some of the lost girls in the brothels of the underworld. As the two cops cross paths, each must decide how far he can trust the other.
As if that isn't enough for one overworked human detective to handle, Chen's highly irregular marriage to Inari is about to come under scrutiny, attracting the attention of Singapore Three's most feared demon hunter.
Futuristic demons and spirits
In this mystical thriller, no moral choice is easy or obvious. Wei Chen operates in a shades-of-gray world where not all demons are wholly evil, where their bloodlines can be tainted by human DNA and a demon like Zhu Irzh can (despite occasional attempts to seek a cure) suffer from disturbing attacks of conscience. Singapore Three—so called because by 2041 there are six identical Singapores—is a high-tech paradise whose Internet runs on biotech, with comatose young women in Matrix-like tanks providing the system's processing power. Chen can e-mail a colleague in hell as easily as he can dial Inari on his mobile phone, but in the field he must still resort to ancient magical techniques—shedding his own blood to break a protection spell, for example, or burning incense to see a spirit photograph. Liz Williams has created a pleasingly exotic world in Snake Agent, a fusion of SF and supernatural fantasy that readers will enjoy visiting.
Snake Agent is intended as the first novel in a series of adventures featuring Chen and Zhu Irzh, and, as a result, the novel often has the same sketchy feel as a TV pilot going through the motions of setting up its milieu and principal cast. The mystery of Pearl Tang has serious implications, but the novel's big conspiracy often fades into the background as the author focuses on setting up character relationships and spelling out the rules that govern spirits and magic in this particular universe. The suspense is therefore muted, rarely convincing the reader that Chen and Inari are in serious danger of losing either their lives or each other.
That said, the novel offers a quick, enjoyable read, with its comic-book sensibility, cyberpunk touches, Chinese film influences and engaging, far-from-mainstream approach to the afterlife. Snake Agent may lack the lyricism and originality of Williams' other novels, but it prepares the ground for future tales about the team of Chen and Irzh, stories that—readers can hope—will dig more deeply into the slumbering potential of these characters, casting more light on them and the unique realms in which they operate.
