cover image Celestial Dogs

Celestial Dogs

J. S. Russell, Jay S. Russell. St. Martin's Press, $22.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-312-15076-1

A grisly account of a versatile Japanese demon's role in 16th-century battle (think sadistic video game) precedes our meeting with the hero of this off-center but uncompelling mystery debut. Marty Burns, a former teenage TV series star, is now a bottom-feeding PI who spouts world-weary smartass opinions but proves to be not very quick. Hired by a pimp to find a missing girl, Burns winds up, after interminable beers and countless references to his teenhood stardom, secretly observing what he believes is a snuff film being produced by a man called Jack (The Ripper) Rippen. Aided by a Japanese businessman who fills him in with the background of the oversize demons, Marty soon understands that the monsters he thought were actors were the real thing, with leathery wings and sour breath. He is caught in the talons of the principal demon himself, though he manages to escape in time to convince the cartoon cops (who think he's been involved in the violence) that the mutilated bodies came from Rippen's porno operation. Crudely written and lacking credibility, this brutal tale gives a view of Hollywood that is simpleminded, wrong-headed and dated all at once. (Mar.)