Murder Mysteries by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell

Murder Mysteries by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This just didn't do it for me. I enjoyed the start, fair enough. I'm a Christian who enjoys reading fantasy and doesn't mind fantastical stories about angels, demons, etc. And this is how this started off and I was ready enough to fall into this make believe "heaven" of the author and illustrator's imagination. I also liked the dual murder stories. However, the story lost me and all logic could no longer be suspended when they start throwing around their own brand of theology to explain the nature of God, religion and the fallen angels. The point my eyes rolled up into my head started with the sentence [Love is] "a feeling of deep affection for another being, often combined with passion or desire -- a need to be with another." Someone let in the PC Brigade. Non-Christians just can't get past the fact that love is *not* a feeling. Love is an action and the more suitable a definition in "heaven" no less would be *God* is love. So the story fell apart here for me as everything about the murder mystery had to do with feelings and comparing love with death. Love and death are not comparable in a Christian manner, the more natural and logical comparisons would be birth and death or life and death. The "love" scene between the angels didn't even bother me at this point because a) there is nothing sexual about the showing of affection between two individuals, especially gender-less ones, even if the illustrator tries to make it look so and b) by this point "love" has become a mockery in the story; something (actually a feeling) that causes jealousy, pain, vengeance and murder.

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