You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But it Helps by Tom Holt (3/5 stars)

I picked this book up on a whim because it looked funny. I have heard of Tom Holt before but have never read any books by him. This book was okay.

I guess you could think of this book as Office Space meets Hell...or something like that. If you throw in a dash of star-crossed lovers and interfering angels and demons then you have this book. Does that help explain it? Probably not. The plotline was convoluted to say the least.

So you have Colin whose dad is selling his soul to the Devil to get cheap workers for his factory so that the family business can compete with Chinese imports. You have Cassie who is the magical go between; you know the person who draws up and explains the contracts that Colin's father needs to sign with the devil(standard procedure obviously). Then you have a rift in space time that's been created because of a couple of star-crossed lovers who can't quite seem to get it right - even though they've been reincarnated numerous times to figure it all out. There is the case of mistaken identity as the powers that be try to fix the star-crossed lovers problem. Also what's up with the tree growing in Colin's parents' house?

If the above sounds convoluted; well it is. This book was not an easy read, it was also not especially fun to read. There were some interested concepts and the writing style was matter of fact, with a British twist to it, and a forced sense of humor. Some parts of this book were mildly funny. I didn't find any of the characters especially interesting. Although the world that Holt created was interesting; everything was just too complicated and the story seemed to chase itself in circles.

I almost didn't get through this book. I had to force myself to finish it. That being said it gets 3 stars (instead of 2) because I got a grand chuckle at the ending . It looks like Tom Holt has a number of books out there that are better than this one. I don't think I will be reading anymore of his books anytime soon. Guess that's what I get for reading something on a whim.