Review: Demon Heart 3: Year of the Witch by David Crane

Naoko Kitamura returns for a final showdown of good and evil in Demon Heart: Year of the Witch, the epic conclusion to author David Crane’s captivating series. Balancing her halves of light and darkness, this supernatural warrior careens through agonizing emotions and deadly battlegrounds, dragging loyal readers into the fray.

Building on the momentum of the first two books, this closing chapter is another international roller coaster of dark conspiracies, shadowy meetings, and brutal violence. The Katana agents are once more tasked with saving the world, and old favorites like Razor, Hammer, and Aero are as reliable and indestructible as ever.

This elite team of supernatural heroes tears its way across Siberia and Japan in a brilliant and uniquely twisted collision of good and evil. The periods of action and intensity are well-balanced with slow, patient passages unraveling sinister schemes, giving the pace of the novel an insistent, addictive appeal.

Crane’s artful pen helps paint countless landscapes with minutiae that hums with authenticity, along with a focus on Japanese tradition, culture and legend. Despite the contemporary tone, the writing also has a nostalgic or noir feel to it, reminiscent of China de Mieville’s unique voice. Some of the storytelling is a bit of a stretch, and some logistical loopholes and plot gaps elicit the occasional eye-roll, but the plot is already larger than life, so a few additional suspensions of disbelief are acceptable.

Most notably, Crane has spent three books crafting an incredible central figure in Naoko, one who is perpetually engaging and surprising. Whether she is criss-crossing the globe in search of evil incarnate, making love to Verdi operas or wrestling the literal and figurative demons within her, Naoko continues to be one of the most interesting and complex characters recently come across by this reviewer. As the focal point of this series, she is a delicately nuanced, oddly relatable super-hybrid that could easily carry this saga even further.

As was the case in the other books of this series, the editing leaves a good deal to be desired. The prose is nearly clean, but a number of spots have been missed, and the repetitive descriptions, heavy-handed drama, and clumsy character development do stick out. Crane is skilled at exposition, but often fails to trust the reader enough, and explains the meaning behind events too thoroughly, or departs on brief tangents that don’t further the story.

That being said, these books have never been short on fun, and this one features a classic treasure hunt-style narrative, with the intrepid heroine and her loyal team racing against the clock to save the lives of billions. The combination of reality and supernatural elements is done extremely well, to the point where readers accept this implicit stretch of the imagination, thanks to the seamless weaving of fantastical abilities into the story. At times, the reading experience is cinematic, and it is easy imagine transferring this story to the big screen.

Despite its occasional shortcomings, Demon Heart 3 is packed with the high-stakes action and intense emotion that have come to define this highly entertaining series.