The Great Big Demon Hunting Agency

I really enjoyed this start to the Spencer & Bart series, it does a great job in introducing the world and the characters within. It was a great gothic adventure and I was excited for the next chapter. Peter Oxley does a great job in telling the story and how well this was written. I can't wait to read more from the author and the series.

"Mr Davis took a step backwards. “No, that's not quite right. I knew of them: I knew their old boss, a decent bloke from back over Seven Dials way. He was a stand-up bloke, so I just assumed…” “Oh, you assumed did you,” sneered Mr Emerson. “And did this old friend of yours vouch for them at all?”

A surprisingly quick read, I speed through this book on the bus journey to Dublin the other week and found myself laughing out loud on numerous occasions (apologies to my fellow passengers for the guffaws of laughter).
Set in London of 1868, we met Spencer and Bart, our two protagonists. Two decidedly bumbling crooks who decide to "go straight". Well to a certain extent as they set up a new business to tackle the threat of demons in London. Yes, all manner of strange demonic creatures exist and they are making life very difficult for the humans of London so are intrepid duo are coming to the rescue.
Naturally, their plan does not go according to plan and mayhem quickly ensues. And it is only due to their own quick thinking (Spencer) and fighting skills (Bart) that Spencer and Bart are able to pay off one debt and scramble into another disaster, I found myself enjoying the mayhem and the regular hints of darkness to come as mentions of the Tappers and disappearances became more frequent.
And then we met Tessie, the wife of a London society man. Tessie is fearful of her husband and hires Spencer and Bart to investigate. They soon uncover some very dark activities and the trio end on fighting both demons and humans in a battle to survive.
The Great Big Demon Hunting Agency is a dark, gothic tale with plenty of humour and heart. One to read and enjoy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital copy before the release date.
It was funny and thrilling throughout! I loved the setting and the characters
A really amazing book!

Part of my goal going into 2023 is to read more books by male authors. And what better time to start this goal than New Year’s Eve?

Yesterday, I requested an ARC of The Great Big Demon Hunting Agency by Peter Oxley. How did my first step towards my goal go down? Let’s find out!

What I liked about the book:
1. This was such a quick read! It was humorous and adventurous enough that I wanted to see what happened next and didn’t want to put it down.

2. The characters were overall enjoyable.

Spencer and Bart: I loved how morally grey Spencer and Bart were; they were crooks after all, but had never done anything SUPER bad and were the ultimate good guys with consciences in the end. I also liked how even though they tried to pigeonhole themselves into their roles (Spencer is usually the brains and Bart is usually the muscle), they showed a lot of other, I would say equally important, traits. Like Bart with his heart of gold and Spencer with allowing his emotions to win over his brain at several points.

Tessie was fine. I liked the idea brought forth that she was an outcast as a kid and she was the creative type rather than the social etiquette type. I also enjoyed the moments when she let herself speak her mind, especially to her husband. I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of Tessie’s character, and I have a feeling she will just continue to bloom beautifully into a rich character as the series goes on.

Thaddeus. Thaddeus. Thaddeus. The bad boy with magic powers who “doesn’t work for anyone”. Oh, I already know I’m going to fall hard for you. Probably the most morally grey of them all, Thaddeus was only in bits and pieces of this, but I have a feeling he will be involved with a lot of the shenanigans going forward. Not necessarily as a main character, but as the character that always shows up to help out at the last minute.

3. This book does a great job of setting us up for future events. We definitely weren’t left on a cliffhanger, but not everything was fully resolved, if that makes sense. This one also set a lot of foundation for future books to be able to just dive in, so I anticipate I will enjoy those even more going forward.

4. I love that cover! It’s fun and vibrant, yet dark and enticing. It reminds me of Daughter of the Pirate King meets The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

What could have been better:
1. Based on the reviews both on Goodreads and NetGalley, I anticipated this book to be more humorous than it was. I was expecting a lot of bumbling, slapstick antics reminiscent of The Three Stooges, which it wasn’t. It was still humorous, don’t get me wrong; it was just more “hmmmms” of appreciation than outright laughter from me.

2. Similar to item 1, the action/adventure was not as actiony or adventury as I thought it would be. I was looking for Goonies meets Ghostbusters, and this fell a bit flat. There were several scenes where they were fighting demons, but none of them really stand out to me looking back. Fun enough to read in the moment, but nothing super memorable.

3. There were two pairs of names that I constantly got mixed up when they were near each other:

– the only women really in this book were named Bessie and Tessie. Did we really need them to rhyme? This was a bit confusing to me at first and had me thinking the author had a typo for part of it. Until our second encounter with Bessie where her appearance was described a bit more, I assumed they were the same person.

– Also, Seth and Spencer. While they may not have rhymed, the first real introduction to Spencer and Bart having Seth thrown in the mix definitely messed with me the entire scene and from there on out whenever Spencer and Seth were together. I constantly found myself saying, “Now, which one is this?”

Final Thoughts:
This was a fun little read that was great to end 2022 on. I’m looking forward to the next one!

Final Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to the publisher Burning Chair, Peter Oxley, and NetGalley for the free copy of this book. The opinions expressed above are voluntary and my own.

What a delightful romp The Great Big Demon Hunting Agency by Peter Oxley is! I thought, from the cover and the title, that it would be a fun read, but it absolutely exceeded all of my expectations.
The leading characters of Spencer and Bart are the epitome of anti-heroes, and yet it's almost as though they were the first to claim the title. They are inept as crooks and as inept as heroes, and yet they pull off earning their hero status with humour and a humanity that is endearing and fun to read.
The setting of 1868 London, England is gritty and engaging, as are the descriptions of the evil besetting the city. The book is well-written and the book is a definite page turner.
I feel fortunate to have received a copy of #TheGreatBigDemonHuntingAgency from #NetGalley and highly recommend this book!

The Great Demon Hunting Agency
By Peter Oxley

Based in an alternate Victorian age, there are demons that somehow are loose upon the world physically. Two guys that never had a legitimate job before has only one option left and that's to go straight! No killing, robbing, or cracking heads. They are best friends and do everything together so they decide to start a Demon Hunting business. This is where everything starts to go really wrong! They are too good at their job!

Tessie is married to an ultimate jerk and treated like a prisoner. Her husband has a friend that comes around that is frightening just with his dark stare. She knows her husband and this scary man has bad intentions for her, but what? She hires the Demon Hunters to investigate because she doesn't know anyone else. Things were wrong before, now they get a lot worse!

The characters are wonderfully good or evil. The narration is perfect. The world building is so terrific I wanted to wash my hands in a few parts when they were in the filthy streets. This book is delightfully fun, exciting, with suspense, magic, paranormal, monsters, evil, and hearts of gold found in the filth of Victorian London!

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me enjoy this fabulous book! This is such a fantastic book!

Thank you to Burning Chair for the opportunity to rate and review this arc which is available on March 2,2023!

So this was a hysterically funny read. Spencer and Bart are screw ups trying to go straight in 1868 London. White Chapel to be precise and it is filled to the brim with Demons from the Aether. The folks of White Chapel fear these beings called the Tappers who are abducting women. So Spencer and Bart decide to do something about these Tappers and save the day.

The pacing was great! The mood was precisely set. I genuinely felt for the two main characters who at times tugged those heartstrings even when they were being foolhardy. I am totally buying this book for my Victorian era horror loving self and I might share with my teen.