Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
This book contains scenes of violence, blood, gore, torture and death. There is a scene of attempted rape on page, and the main female character is emotionally and financially abused by her husband. He has her kidnapped and while kept prisoner she is the victim of paranormal experiments. Other female characters on and off page are also experimented on, with one scene depicting a woman being kidnapped from her home under the guise of being mentally ill. The experiments are particularly violent and disturbing.

Based on the synopsis The Great Big Demon Detective Agency by Peter Oxley looked like it had the potential to be an interesting read, unfortunately it ended up being a fun quick read and that was one of the few positives things I have to say about it. Normally I would have stopped reading a book like this, however, despite the warning signs the storyline seemed as though it was going somewhere promising. Instead of building up to something interesting, the conclusion was poorly executed and very unsatisfying.

The biggest issue I had with The Great Big Demon Detective Agency was the poor quality of characters. Other than one side character they were all badly written. The two main characters are written as stereotypes, although it’s evident that Oxley has done this on purpose and the satirical nature of them is one of the few redeemable qualities of this book. The villain’s identities were obvious from their first introduction, and I wasn’t impressed that Oxley used the particularly harmful stereotype of villains being identified by canes.

Then there’s the issue of the main female character, Tessie, who essentially is the stereotypical damsel in distress dressed up to be an intellectual woman of science. You know the type; the very clever woman who still needs saving by the big strong men because, well, all women need saving right? Tessie is also stuck in an emotionally and financially abusive relationship which of course, our two unconventional heroes have to save her from. As an abuse survivor the way the storyline was handled felt like a complete mockery as it was simply a plot hook to make the male characters look good. Getting an abuse victim out of a horrible situation was only a secondary consideration.

Other than the poor storyline and world-building, there are the mistakes and sloppy errors throughout the book. It’s off-putting to read a Victorian novel where the language is all over the place. Characters were using slang like “totally” and “really” as though they’ve just stepped out of the 1980s and 1990s not the 1860s. There’s also a whole chapter dedicated to Tessie sitting doing needlepoint with other noble women, which seems to have no point other than to introduce one character. I’m not quite sure why an entire chapter needed to be dedicated to that. Oxley’s writing style also grated on my nerves. He has an awful habit of trying to use overly descriptive analogies, such as describing houses as people.

If you’re bored and looking for something quick and fun to read, then The Great Big Demon Detective Agency will keep you busy for a bit. But if you’re looking for something with a bit of depth then I would give this one a pass. Personally for me, an entertaining and humorous read shouldn’t mean cutting the corners when it comes to good writing, and in that regard The Great Big Demon Detective Agency just didn’t work for me.

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