Here’s a book that’s been sitting on my shelves for a while – and this week, enticed by the beautiful cover artwork and a promise I made that “I would review it eventually, honest”, I picked it up. Now I wish I had done so much sooner, because it was a very enjoyable read indeed. To be honest, it’s not a book I know how to classify – is it fantasy? Horror? I suspect that if one has to pigeon-hole The Ninth Circle, it would be as urban fantasy, as there are strong echoes of Neil Gaiman, especially his Sir Terry Pratchett collaboration Good Omens. The setting in this case is a beautifully-evoked (and clearly well researched) Budapest, whose streets Alex Bell has definitely pounded to enable her to paint such vivid pictures of its churches, monuments and streets.

WARNING: Review contains mild spoilers

When Gabriel Antaeus comes to, it’s to discover himself lying on the floor of a shabby apartment – and he has no memory of who he is or how he came to be there. There is a large pile of money on the kitchen table. Keeping a journal is his route towards self-discovery – Gabriel’s initial child-like innocence is sweet and touching, for example when he decides that he must have volunteered to feed the fish while the rest of his family went away. As he can’t remember where the fish are, he buys a large quanity of fishfood for the moment when his memory returns, so he is ready to dash round and feed them. His bafflement is increased  when strange parcels start to arrive for him, containing obscure clues and references to Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Nine Circles of Hell. He has a clear preoccupation with religion, angels, demons, churches and the like, and in the course of one church visit, he encounters a new friend – whose presence becomes central to the events that will unfold.

Nothing is at it seems in Gabriel’s life, of course – he has strange experiences, visions and revelations almost from day one. Gradually, he encounters the truth about the conflict that he is becoming embroiled in, whether he likes it or not. One striking aspect of The Ninth Circle is the depth and breadth of Christian theology (or should I say mythology) that it describes – the hierarchy of angels and demons, the story of Lilith, the circles of hell as described by Dante, and much else besides. It’s fascinating stuff, and far from academic, because Gabriel discovers that his dreams and visions mark him as a person ‘of the in-between’, who can see the agents of heaven and hell as they move about the city. Like it or not, Gabriel is no mere bystander as his expertise in his pre-amnesia life is called on by both sides in the heavenly conflict, in a suitably breathless climax.

The Ninth Circle is a really enjoyable book – the portrayal of the mental turmoil that Gabriel goes through, the characterisation (devils who are almost likeable, angels who are hard and unfeeling), the carefully paced revelations, all add up to a great, character-driven, fantasy novel. Gollancz describe Alex Bell as an ‘exceptionally able’ novelist, and on this evidence it’s very difficult to disagree.

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