Jamali's first (published) work read like fishing with dynamite.
And I mean that in a good way—
From the jump, the reader is hit with a concussive emotional blow, which at first made me think "Well of course that is why the protagonist is a hard-charging, grieving alcoholic with terrible language."
Then the author feeds you tidbits of information, running the video feed forwards and back, and you start to get the bigger picture...
Except that you don't. Jamali surprises you with some novel, ELEGANT even, twists at the end. The first twist got me nodding, grinning, feeling had, and the second twist made me feel foolish for noting plot pot-holes along the way. Jamali smiled at my shoulder, tapping me to show me how he'd filled each gap in. They'd been engineered!
I love surprises, so in the spirit of not ruining yours, I'll finish with this: "The Devil's Lieutenant" isn't who you've been told he is, and delightfully, he doesn't know who he is either. The Devil lies, after all, and he isn't the only one ... with depth hard to achieve in a novella so brief, Jamali has pulled a fast one here worth reading. Splashes of 007-ness, at times campy ... Jamali built comic relief-valves much needed into this vitriolic tale full of Old Testament wrath. Days later you'll say Ahh ... That's why!
Highly recommended.
