A review by kcollett75
Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly

4.0

The title is pure camp, and also fits perfectly with the sort of silent movie Christine is making in early 1920s Hollywood. Her sister-in-law Norah comes from her own tragedies in England during WWI to be Christine’s companion and help her with her three personable Pekinese dogs, who figure prominently in the story, as do mysterious murders, a cursed necklace, an ancient Chinese wizard, a cute and sensible photographer, and the demon Rat God to whom Christine has been unwittingly pledged. The blurb on the front—“Too beautiful to live, too wild to die”—is completely random and irrelevant to the book (though it would fit with one of those silent movies). Hambly is, as usual, competent and evocative.