Practical Demonkeeping

November 1, 1993
A people-eating demon threatens a sleepy California resort town in Moore's offbeat, witty debut.

PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING is joyously absurd, managing as it does to build a story of real warmth around a flesh-eating demon. Travis, the reluctant master of the demon, Catch, has been on the road 70 years in his quest to banish Catch back to the netherworld. Here Travis arrives at the quiet town of Pine Cove, with its fake Tudor faade, and the story takes off from there. Oliver Wyman handles the numerous characters with ease and considerable talent for mimicry as the Californian misfits are joined by an Arabian djinn, the fruity English-accented HP, and, of course, the demon himself, voiced with larynx-lacerating menace and mischief. Yes, people do get eaten, but for most of the unlikely heroes and heroines there's a happy ending. C.A.T. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine