I picked up this novel hoping for an enjoyable read, having loved some of the late author's early work years ago. However, although the writing is more accomplished, the story did not gell for me, partly because the main female character, Safira, is very passive throughout. This is partly due to her possession by the demon of the title, but it did mean that the real agency in the novel is through the main male character, who is not that likeable although we do get to see why. But unlike her earlier male protagonist Tarod, who is 'mean, moody and magnificent', Grendon is a pragmatist although working towards a hoped-for vengeance against the king who is responsible for the deaths of his parents and father-figure and mentor, plus the ongoing executions of other people who have the same sort of powers with which Grendon was born.

There are some quite nicely realised minor characters such as the woman who is the mentor's widow, and Safira's real father, and some good twists in the motivation of the various characters and their agendas. However, the passivity of Safira, combined with a tendency to headhop between characters within a scene - which did not confuse me, but irritated instead - plus the extremely dodgy method Grendon uses to exorcise the demon - means I can't rate this higher than 2 stars.

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