Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton

Book Description: You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, my life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama. Among my own, I have confronted horrendous enemies, endured my noble kin’s treachery and malevolence, and honored my duty to conceive a royal heir—all for the right to claim the throne. But I turned my back on court and crown, choosing exile in the human world—and in the arms of my beloved Frost and Darkness.


While I may have rejected the monarchy, I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. My kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. I must get to the bottom of these horrendous murders, even if that means going up against Gilda, the Fairy Godmother, my rival for fey loyalties in Los Angeles.

But even stranger things are happening. Mortals I once healed with magic are suddenly performing miracles, a shocking phenomenon wreaking havoc on human/faerie relations. Though I am innocent, dark suspicions of banned magical activities swirl around me.


I thought I’d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. I had dreamed of an idyllic life in sunny L.A. with my beloved ones beside me. But it becomes time to wake up and realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever—even if they’re magical.

Warning: Spoilers

Divine Misdemeanors opens with a murder scene, but this book isn’t about the murders. Not really. I am not sure what it is about. There is plenty of stuff about her relationships, lots of sex, a few power plays and a few hints that not all is well in her aunt’s court.

That is not to say I didn’t like this book, I did, I liked the relationship aspect and there were a few things I wasn’t expecting. One of those things was that Barinthus is possibly gay or bi and in love Merry’s father. He didn’t deny it. I was stunned because I wasn’t expecting that. It explains why he won’t go to bed with her. The other reason would be he doesn’t want to sleep with his friend’s daughter. Both are good reasons. This particular facet of Barinthus wasn’t important to the story; what was important was his disapproval of her rejecting the faeiry crown to save Frost.

I am not really sure what part of Divine Misdemeanors I liked best. There are lots of really great scenes. I think it may be the sex scene with Rhys by the sea. But he is my favorite of the men and one who isn’t on stage enough. He gets a sithen of his very own in that. We didn’t see it and I wanted to.

This book has one glaring weakness and that’s the mystery. It is not much of one, and despite being a private detective, Merry doesn’t do any investigating. She goes to murder scenes, gives her opinion, gets trapped by reporters and that’s it. Okay, so with reporters following her around like rabid dogs she couldn’t do much anyway. But the murderer falls into her lap. She doesn’t have to do anything to find out who he is. Then there was the finale – capturing the killer. That part was good, but I am still stuck on how she didn’t have to do anything to find out who he was. It started with a murder scene and ended with the killer, but there was very little of the mystery in between. There were all her guards and her relationships with them, but after the first chapter I was expecting a bit more in the way of mystery. This would have been perfect with it. Longer, too, but I wouldn’t have minded that.

Grade: B-