The Sign of the Devil (Frey & McGray #7), by Óscar de Muriel

The Sign of the Devil by Óscar de Muriel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Redemption Through Fire: A Triumphant Farewell

I’m currently reading books from the depths of my Kobo – things that haven’t been on my radar for a long time or which I was afraid to read. “The Sign of the Devil” by Óscar de Muriel was one from the latter category.

The previous two instalments simply stank: bland stories, bad writing, character regressions instead of development — it was Murphy’s Law materialised as a book.
And yet, I needed closure — “all will be revealed”, de Muriel promised for this final novel in his Frey and McGray series.

To my immense surprise, not only did he keep his promise, but he actually wrote a fast-paced, interesting, suspenseful, yes, even thrilling swan song for both his eponymous protagonists and even some side characters. First among the latter is, of course, Ms. Amy “Pansy” McGray (nothing will be revealed here, though!).

Like the phoenix from the ashes, de Muriel rises and shines: The writing is finally engaging again, the story expands at breakneck speed which is extremely fitting as this time, it’s — sometimes literally — a race against time, and Frey is back at the top of his game and changed by it…

»‘And I am sure Nine-Nails will be a bottomless pit of information on the odd and ghostly!’
‘Do not say it so disparagingly. You must know almost as much as he does by now.’
‘Hardly,’ I lied, the ingredients for a witch’s bottle at once coming to mind.«

… whereas McGray finally starts developing a character that doesn’t comprise just his signature “Och nae”.

»McGray poked my sternum quite harshly. ‘Don’t milk it, Percy. I ken yer balls’ve finally dropped, but patience is nae my strongest suit.’«

Much of what made me like the early novels is back, and the lengths, illogical and nonsensical actions are gone. We’re back to something that actually resembles (to some positive extent) a police procedural with a better balance between science and the “supernatural”.

This is one of the kinds of farewells that I for one wish for: for the characters, the readers, and, of course, the author. For any fan of this series, this is most certainly a must-read. For newcomers, start with the first novel, make sure to ignore the mere existence of books five and six, and head to this seventh one instead. Nothing of value, story-wise, will be lost.

For me, this book is very likely the last one by Óscar de Muriel I’ll ever read since his inclusion of the “supernatural” in the first place always was a gripe of mine and, ultimately, neither his writing nor his stories entice me enough to keep up with whatever he’s going to write next.

Still, this novel garners a full five stars out of five.


Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam




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