Conrad Bland is a monster, evil beyond reason. He is a man responsible for countless thousands of deaths around the Republic. He is the creator of numerous devices of death and torture that most sentient races would not imagine using.

He is a wanted man, the most wanted man by the Republic.

When the republic discovers that Bland has been given refuge on Walpurgis III they decide to send in an assassin to find him and kill him. The only problem is that Walpurgis III is a planet that cut all ties with the Republic a century earlier and they have little intelligence regarding it.

Walpurgis III is no ordinary planet. When the expansion of the human race into the galaxy had occurred so many planets were available for colonisation that any special interest or religious group, that expressed the desire, could be granted a new home world. In this expansion, Walpurgis III was the planet given to devil worshippers.

When Jericho, the Republic's assassin, arrives on the planet he is a man out of place, unaware of much of the society he finds himself in. He is however smart and very ruthless.

John Sable is the head of police, and under his leadership the department has a perfect record in solving homicides. When Jericho kills a man to gain an understanding of the law enforcement on Walpurgis III he succeeds in drawing the attention of Sable.

Sable is a remarkable astute man and quickly realises that someone has arrived on the planet and is hunting Bland. The problem he has is in persuading anyone else that he's right.

This is a very speedy read. Mike Resnick has a wonderful reader-friendly writing style. He tells stories that grip the reader (well, he does in my case). And he tells stories without fuss, without over-elaboration and without padding them with unnecessary detail.

The end result of this is that this should be cup of tea of anyone who likes adventure style sf. In one novel you are not going to find every intricate detail of the Universe Resnick's characters inhabit. In Resnick's books the Universe is a backdrop, the details of which will only be hinted at rather than told in great detail.

This suits me as a reader. I do like concept-lead sf, stories where the idea and the science is the star of the story. But books like that can be hard work. There are times when the mind needs a reward for it's efforts. Mike Resnick is one of those authors I use for sheer pleasure, for he always delivers a great story.

He also doesn't shy away from his topics. Conrad Bland is possibly the most evil man I've ever read in an sf book. When you consider that most bad guys in stories are doing what they do to support a cause they believe in, then you have to consider that they are not totally evil. Bland however is.

Also this is a world of Satanism, Voodoo and Black Magic Practitioners. And this aspect of their society is not skimmed over, Resnick incorporates it totally into his tale. What he does not do though, is to go overboard.

There are elements of the rituals of the various religions here, and they are described, but these descriptions include as much information as we need to understand this world and the people living on it. It is handled well, and not to gain the novel shock value from any readers.

This novel maintains his winning run in my book (no pun intended). This is a 100 mile an hour sprint that Resnick drags us on here. But it's not a ride that you ever want to get off.

I think it's fair to say I'm a fan of Mike Resnick's writing, but with novels like this you will quickly find out why I am.