Demon Hunts

April 12, 2010
In Murphy’s oddly fuzzy fifth mystery featuring half-Cherokee, half-Irish Seattle police detective Joanne Walker, the usually feisty urban shaman and her psychically gifted partner, Billy Holliday, confront the Seattle Slaughterer, a cannibalistic serial killer who might also be a banshee or a wendigo. Joanne’s beginning to appreciate her gifts of healing and Sight, as does her boss, Capt. Michael Morrison, but it’s the anniversary of her mother’s death, and she’s still grieving the loss of Coyote, her Navajo mentor and boyfriend. She’s delighted when Coyote suddenly returns, and less thrilled that the investigation requires her to travel into the eerie Lower and Middle World to save victims and confront the monster. Unfortunately, the romantic reunion with Coyote generates few sparks for this low-key installment, and the killer, who should be terrifying, comes off as a scenery-chewing conundrum.