What do you think?
Rate this book
To Hell and Back #3
Hell to Pay: To Hell and Back, Book III
The To Be or Not To Be?
The epic conclusion to the brilliant To Hell and Back series – a trilogy that does for autism what Flowers for Algernon did for intellectual disability
Being a crime-fighting superhero with a demon sidekick is not as much fun as Chesney Arnstruther thought it would be. Nor is having his autism “healed” by the historical Jesus.
To make things worse, he’s zeroing in on the metaphysical truths behind the notion that reality is a book constantly being rewritten by a deity exploring the nature of good and evil. Satan and the Messiah are holed up in Eden writing fresh chapters, and Chesney’s quest takes him to ancient Babylon and Rome, and into a deep-past encounter with a tribe of God-worshipping dinosaurs.
It all leads Chesney toward a choice that no superhero should have to make…
FILE Fantasy [ The Better Book | Talk the Dinosaur | Scam Busters | Bring Me Barabbas! ]
The epic conclusion to the brilliant To Hell and Back series – a trilogy that does for autism what Flowers for Algernon did for intellectual disability
Being a crime-fighting superhero with a demon sidekick is not as much fun as Chesney Arnstruther thought it would be. Nor is having his autism “healed” by the historical Jesus.
To make things worse, he’s zeroing in on the metaphysical truths behind the notion that reality is a book constantly being rewritten by a deity exploring the nature of good and evil. Satan and the Messiah are holed up in Eden writing fresh chapters, and Chesney’s quest takes him to ancient Babylon and Rome, and into a deep-past encounter with a tribe of God-worshipping dinosaurs.
It all leads Chesney toward a choice that no superhero should have to make…
FILE Fantasy [ The Better Book | Talk the Dinosaur | Scam Busters | Bring Me Barabbas! ]
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
9 people are currently reading
317 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Hughes
201 books280 followersBorn in Liverpool, his family moved to Canada when he was five years old. Married since late 1960s, he has three grown sons. He is currently relocated to Britain. He is a former director of the Federation of British Columbia Writers.
A university drop-out from a working poor background, he worked in a factory that made school desks, drove a grocery delivery truck, was night janitor in a GM dealership, and did a short stint as an orderly in a private mental hospital. As a teenager, he served a year as a volunteer with the Company of Young Canadians.
He has made his living as a writer all of his adult life, first as a journalist in newspapers, then as a staff speechwriter to the Canadian Ministers of Justice and Environment, and, since 1979, as a freelance corporate and political speechwriter in British Columbia.
His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s, Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Postscripts, Interzone, and a number of "Year’s Best" anthologies. Night Shade Books published his short story collection, The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, in 2005.
He has won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, The Endeavour Award for his historical novel What the Wind Brings, and the Global Book Award in the dark fantasy category for The Ghost-Wrangler.
A university drop-out from a working poor background, he worked in a factory that made school desks, drove a grocery delivery truck, was night janitor in a GM dealership, and did a short stint as an orderly in a private mental hospital. As a teenager, he served a year as a volunteer with the Company of Young Canadians.
He has made his living as a writer all of his adult life, first as a journalist in newspapers, then as a staff speechwriter to the Canadian Ministers of Justice and Environment, and, since 1979, as a freelance corporate and political speechwriter in British Columbia.
His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s, Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Postscripts, Interzone, and a number of "Year’s Best" anthologies. Night Shade Books published his short story collection, The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, in 2005.
He has won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, The Endeavour Award for his historical novel What the Wind Brings, and the Global Book Award in the dark fantasy category for The Ghost-Wrangler.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
July 2, 2013
http://www.rantingdragon.com/review-o...
Hell to Pay is the third book in the To Hell and Back series by British-Canadian author Matthew Hughes. It continues the story of Chesney Arnstruther and his superhero alter-ego, The Actionary, as he tries to do some good in the world, even if his powers come directly from the pits of Hell.
Christopher Moore meets Kevin Smith
Throughout Hell to Pay, I found myself making many comparisons in my mind to the comedic style of Christopher Moore. Hughes has a certain irreverence and cleverness that I find absolutely wonderful, and it kept me reading with a smile and a chuckle. There’s a certain balance between humor and sincerity that is really difficult to maintain; presenting something as funny but then landing on the side of serious makes it stilted, whereas crossing too far into funny makes it farcical. The number of authors who can nail that balance is very low, and I’m happy to add Matthew Hughes to a list that previously only included Christopher Moore, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and Spider Robinson.
The other work that kept coming to mind as I read this book was Kevin Smith’s great movie Dogma. I hold the title of ‘staff philosopher’ with Ranting Dragon, so I’m a sucker for books that offer an original treatment of religious and philosophical themes, and this book provides one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Both thought provoking and hilarious, it manages to somehow trigger “That’s crazy,” and “That’s just crazy enough to be true,” at the same time. There’s nothing quite like reading a book for pure entertainment and coming away from it with something to think about, too.
A very special episode of Ranting Dragon
I haven’t read either of the first two books in this series (yet!), so I don’t know how Hughes portrays this story element, but one thing that really stands out for me is Chesney’s autism and the way it is described. As someone with an Autism Spectrum Disorder myself, I found the descriptions present in this book to actually be very effective; Hughes described the feeling of being in social situations with autism better than I’ve ever been able to find the words for myself.
It really serves to apply a dash of realism to what is otherwise a fairly out-there story and plot. It makes Chesney more sympathetic and human, which goes a really long way toward maintaining that balance between comedy and sincerity I described above. I don’t know if Hughes himself has any first-hand experience with the spectrum, but if he does, it speaks to his bravery and self-awareness to write about them in this way. If he doesn’t, it speaks to his ability as a writer to describe it so well. Either way, it’s very well done.
Why should you read this book?
Well, if you aren’t an unobservant git like me, you would probably read this book because you’d already read the first two books in the series, so you already know if you like them or not. But if you are an unobservant git like me and want to pick up a book without bothering to find out that it’s a book three, it’s still very much worth it.
I didn’t feel like I missed something so vital I couldn’t follow what was happening in this book by not having read the previous ones. And as a stand-alone, it’s still a great story. It’s funny, witty, interesting, the characters are very real (even the fake ones), and the pacing is great.
For fans of Moore’s rational silliness, Pratchett’s amusing slapstick, Robinson’s clever wordplay, and Adams’ surprising deepness, this is a book and author you need to check out.
Hell to Pay is the third book in the To Hell and Back series by British-Canadian author Matthew Hughes. It continues the story of Chesney Arnstruther and his superhero alter-ego, The Actionary, as he tries to do some good in the world, even if his powers come directly from the pits of Hell.
Christopher Moore meets Kevin Smith
Throughout Hell to Pay, I found myself making many comparisons in my mind to the comedic style of Christopher Moore. Hughes has a certain irreverence and cleverness that I find absolutely wonderful, and it kept me reading with a smile and a chuckle. There’s a certain balance between humor and sincerity that is really difficult to maintain; presenting something as funny but then landing on the side of serious makes it stilted, whereas crossing too far into funny makes it farcical. The number of authors who can nail that balance is very low, and I’m happy to add Matthew Hughes to a list that previously only included Christopher Moore, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and Spider Robinson.
The other work that kept coming to mind as I read this book was Kevin Smith’s great movie Dogma. I hold the title of ‘staff philosopher’ with Ranting Dragon, so I’m a sucker for books that offer an original treatment of religious and philosophical themes, and this book provides one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Both thought provoking and hilarious, it manages to somehow trigger “That’s crazy,” and “That’s just crazy enough to be true,” at the same time. There’s nothing quite like reading a book for pure entertainment and coming away from it with something to think about, too.
A very special episode of Ranting Dragon
I haven’t read either of the first two books in this series (yet!), so I don’t know how Hughes portrays this story element, but one thing that really stands out for me is Chesney’s autism and the way it is described. As someone with an Autism Spectrum Disorder myself, I found the descriptions present in this book to actually be very effective; Hughes described the feeling of being in social situations with autism better than I’ve ever been able to find the words for myself.
It really serves to apply a dash of realism to what is otherwise a fairly out-there story and plot. It makes Chesney more sympathetic and human, which goes a really long way toward maintaining that balance between comedy and sincerity I described above. I don’t know if Hughes himself has any first-hand experience with the spectrum, but if he does, it speaks to his bravery and self-awareness to write about them in this way. If he doesn’t, it speaks to his ability as a writer to describe it so well. Either way, it’s very well done.
Why should you read this book?
Well, if you aren’t an unobservant git like me, you would probably read this book because you’d already read the first two books in the series, so you already know if you like them or not. But if you are an unobservant git like me and want to pick up a book without bothering to find out that it’s a book three, it’s still very much worth it.
I didn’t feel like I missed something so vital I couldn’t follow what was happening in this book by not having read the previous ones. And as a stand-alone, it’s still a great story. It’s funny, witty, interesting, the characters are very real (even the fake ones), and the pacing is great.
For fans of Moore’s rational silliness, Pratchett’s amusing slapstick, Robinson’s clever wordplay, and Adams’ surprising deepness, this is a book and author you need to check out.
July 16, 2013
From 42webs.com
There is something sad inside you when a series comes to end. Some, like Wheel of Time or The Dresden Files, are long series that you’ve followed for many, many, years while others are shorter, trilogies or whatnot, but when you hit the last book you feel that same feeling. The sadness that it’s ending, the joy at the finale and the sorrow that exist as you have to find a way to pick yourself up and move on. Once again I suffer and cheer through a series end as the To Hell and Back series comes, to what we assume, is the end with Hell to Pay.
I stumbled across The Damned Busters and instantly fell in love with the concept and the book. I consumed it like a hungry beast and ravished Costume Not Included the moment it hit shelves. Then I saw and eagerly waited for the third book: Hell to Pay by Matthew Hughes.
Hell to Pay takes us back to world of Chesney Anstruther – aka The Actionary -, Xaphan, and the world that exist as a book that God is writing to learn about morality. We return to Chesney’s life of fighting crime with his demon sidekick, taking down the griffter known as Arthur Wrigley, and his battle to save his city from the reach of evil, but as he fight he can’t help but worry about Poppy Paxton – the rich heiress that because of his influence met the devil, got sent to hell and barely escaped. Despite her memory being wiped she has become a bundle of quiver mess, like an amplified PTS victim. Chesney, feeling guilty – for the first time ever – for his involvement – tried to find a way to cure Poppy without restoring her memories. This lead him and Xaphan traveling to another pocket dimension – a part of existence that no longer present in reality after God wrote it out of the main narrative – to recover an ancient mystic from Biblical times names Simon Magus.
This, the final straw, sends reality spinning as everything starts to change. Hell breaks a contract, something that has never happened before, Adramalek – Devil’s second in command – is forced to turn on Hell’s own, and a battle between him and Xaphan forces Chesney and co. To the world of the Chikkichikk, a proud and ancient race of warrior dinosaurs from the universe that God made, and then rejected, before he started tinkering with ours.
This book is essentially the final moments in a game of Jenga. God built the tower of bricks eons ago and ever since Chesney accidently put Hell on strike in the opening pages of the first book, and the resulting actions, he’s been pulling bricks from the tower.
You take a piece from the middle and you put it on the top.
Then, after you pull one too many bricks, the tower collapses. That is where this book takes place. With Chesney putting hell on strike, learning about the book, having that info influence others around him – like Nat Blowdell – and pulling Joshua and Simon from the pocket dimensions the tower has become unstable and is about to collapse, taking with it reality itself. We are watching the aftermath of …well Chesney affect Heaven, Hell and all of reality – this one and past ones.
Hell to Pay is a slight jump from the other two books in the series. It still has its complex working of hell, its interesting take on theology and existence, but looses something in humour and original crime-fighting premise. Hughes still has some of his trademark humour in the book, like Simon’s rough transition from Biblical time to Las Vegas, like a woman – after torturing a guy – suddenly realizing she really likes doing that and wondering where she can find men who enjoy having it done to them, and the existence of the Chikkichikk, but due to its darker and, slightly, more serious tone. It’s not a massive jump, like going from Ace Ventura 1 and 2 and then deciding to do Ace 3 as a serious movie, it’s more like going from Hangover 1 and 2 and then jumping to a darker Hangover 3. Everything you want is there – it just needed to evolve slightly for the finale.
This evolution also affects the storytelling as well. The first two books had a great deal of focus on Chesney fighting crime as the Actionary but it’s barely touched on in the third. Chesney still uses his power to fight, this time against the warrior dinosaurs, but not against crime. This does make sense. As the stakes are higher so too must be the threats. Batman fights every low-level thug in Gotham but when Darksied shows up and he unites with the Justice League the Bat lets the lower thugs slide to take down the bigger threats.
Hughes does a brilliant job of introduce new things into his world. We learn that unless God creates pivots – people to push people forward – that humanity become stagnant and nothing changes. He used to pick out ordinary folk, Moses or Joseph or Samuel, and give him a nudge. Then he tried making deeply charismatic people from the cradle – Alexander the Great and Siddhartha Gautama – and then he tried creating wonderworkers. Hughes tells us how God created three wonderworkers, because people were expecting a messiah, and let us choose one. One, Joshua, got preachy, got in trouble with the authorities and put to death, the other was Simon Magus and the third was Barabbas. The devil tempted each of the three and two said no, Barabbas said yes. These pivots, long since gone, are brilliant new additions to Hughes’ world. They act not only as a catalyst and a plot device but also as a new villain.
One of my favorite parts of the book was Hughes portrayal of the changed Chesney. In book one and most of two he was a high-functioning autistic. He worked in what he called pools-of-light while the rest of the world lay in darkness. In the second book Joshua inadvertently healed our protagonist of his mental deficiency. A great deal of Chesney inner thought are based around he has changed. How the pools of light no longer existed and how the world is now entirely bright. The world used to be simple to Chesney, never really having emotion to worry about, but now it’s big and complicated and his cure may not be the blessing he thought it was. It was an intriguing character development, seeing someone being cured and watching them struggle with being normal.
Then there was the ending. Dues ex machina literally means “God from the machine” and is used to indicate “a person or event which provides a sudden, unexpected solution to a story”. A lot of books and shows can suffer from this but when God – capitol G – is an active character in the book dues ex machina comes with the territory. The ending left me, initially, with a feeling of un-fulfillment. Then I sat and thought about then ending. The more I thought about the ending, and all the events that led up to this finale, the more the ending grew on me. IT wasn’t just a convenient ending; it was the best and only ending for Chesney. The ending took elements of the character from all the way back in book one and from the depth of the character. This ending was based around everything that Chesney was before all of this started.
So all in all I adored this book. It was darker and more serious than I expected but not without taking away from what I loved. Those who read the first two books from this Canadian author will jump on the third one but for those of you looking for something original and amazing to read that looks at everything we are and twists it – give To Hell and Back a shot. It is well worth it.
There is something sad inside you when a series comes to end. Some, like Wheel of Time or The Dresden Files, are long series that you’ve followed for many, many, years while others are shorter, trilogies or whatnot, but when you hit the last book you feel that same feeling. The sadness that it’s ending, the joy at the finale and the sorrow that exist as you have to find a way to pick yourself up and move on. Once again I suffer and cheer through a series end as the To Hell and Back series comes, to what we assume, is the end with Hell to Pay.
I stumbled across The Damned Busters and instantly fell in love with the concept and the book. I consumed it like a hungry beast and ravished Costume Not Included the moment it hit shelves. Then I saw and eagerly waited for the third book: Hell to Pay by Matthew Hughes.
Hell to Pay takes us back to world of Chesney Anstruther – aka The Actionary -, Xaphan, and the world that exist as a book that God is writing to learn about morality. We return to Chesney’s life of fighting crime with his demon sidekick, taking down the griffter known as Arthur Wrigley, and his battle to save his city from the reach of evil, but as he fight he can’t help but worry about Poppy Paxton – the rich heiress that because of his influence met the devil, got sent to hell and barely escaped. Despite her memory being wiped she has become a bundle of quiver mess, like an amplified PTS victim. Chesney, feeling guilty – for the first time ever – for his involvement – tried to find a way to cure Poppy without restoring her memories. This lead him and Xaphan traveling to another pocket dimension – a part of existence that no longer present in reality after God wrote it out of the main narrative – to recover an ancient mystic from Biblical times names Simon Magus.
This, the final straw, sends reality spinning as everything starts to change. Hell breaks a contract, something that has never happened before, Adramalek – Devil’s second in command – is forced to turn on Hell’s own, and a battle between him and Xaphan forces Chesney and co. To the world of the Chikkichikk, a proud and ancient race of warrior dinosaurs from the universe that God made, and then rejected, before he started tinkering with ours.
This book is essentially the final moments in a game of Jenga. God built the tower of bricks eons ago and ever since Chesney accidently put Hell on strike in the opening pages of the first book, and the resulting actions, he’s been pulling bricks from the tower.
You take a piece from the middle and you put it on the top.
Then, after you pull one too many bricks, the tower collapses. That is where this book takes place. With Chesney putting hell on strike, learning about the book, having that info influence others around him – like Nat Blowdell – and pulling Joshua and Simon from the pocket dimensions the tower has become unstable and is about to collapse, taking with it reality itself. We are watching the aftermath of …well Chesney affect Heaven, Hell and all of reality – this one and past ones.
Hell to Pay is a slight jump from the other two books in the series. It still has its complex working of hell, its interesting take on theology and existence, but looses something in humour and original crime-fighting premise. Hughes still has some of his trademark humour in the book, like Simon’s rough transition from Biblical time to Las Vegas, like a woman – after torturing a guy – suddenly realizing she really likes doing that and wondering where she can find men who enjoy having it done to them, and the existence of the Chikkichikk, but due to its darker and, slightly, more serious tone. It’s not a massive jump, like going from Ace Ventura 1 and 2 and then deciding to do Ace 3 as a serious movie, it’s more like going from Hangover 1 and 2 and then jumping to a darker Hangover 3. Everything you want is there – it just needed to evolve slightly for the finale.
This evolution also affects the storytelling as well. The first two books had a great deal of focus on Chesney fighting crime as the Actionary but it’s barely touched on in the third. Chesney still uses his power to fight, this time against the warrior dinosaurs, but not against crime. This does make sense. As the stakes are higher so too must be the threats. Batman fights every low-level thug in Gotham but when Darksied shows up and he unites with the Justice League the Bat lets the lower thugs slide to take down the bigger threats.
Hughes does a brilliant job of introduce new things into his world. We learn that unless God creates pivots – people to push people forward – that humanity become stagnant and nothing changes. He used to pick out ordinary folk, Moses or Joseph or Samuel, and give him a nudge. Then he tried making deeply charismatic people from the cradle – Alexander the Great and Siddhartha Gautama – and then he tried creating wonderworkers. Hughes tells us how God created three wonderworkers, because people were expecting a messiah, and let us choose one. One, Joshua, got preachy, got in trouble with the authorities and put to death, the other was Simon Magus and the third was Barabbas. The devil tempted each of the three and two said no, Barabbas said yes. These pivots, long since gone, are brilliant new additions to Hughes’ world. They act not only as a catalyst and a plot device but also as a new villain.
One of my favorite parts of the book was Hughes portrayal of the changed Chesney. In book one and most of two he was a high-functioning autistic. He worked in what he called pools-of-light while the rest of the world lay in darkness. In the second book Joshua inadvertently healed our protagonist of his mental deficiency. A great deal of Chesney inner thought are based around he has changed. How the pools of light no longer existed and how the world is now entirely bright. The world used to be simple to Chesney, never really having emotion to worry about, but now it’s big and complicated and his cure may not be the blessing he thought it was. It was an intriguing character development, seeing someone being cured and watching them struggle with being normal.
Then there was the ending. Dues ex machina literally means “God from the machine” and is used to indicate “a person or event which provides a sudden, unexpected solution to a story”. A lot of books and shows can suffer from this but when God – capitol G – is an active character in the book dues ex machina comes with the territory. The ending left me, initially, with a feeling of un-fulfillment. Then I sat and thought about then ending. The more I thought about the ending, and all the events that led up to this finale, the more the ending grew on me. IT wasn’t just a convenient ending; it was the best and only ending for Chesney. The ending took elements of the character from all the way back in book one and from the depth of the character. This ending was based around everything that Chesney was before all of this started.
So all in all I adored this book. It was darker and more serious than I expected but not without taking away from what I loved. Those who read the first two books from this Canadian author will jump on the third one but for those of you looking for something original and amazing to read that looks at everything we are and twists it – give To Hell and Back a shot. It is well worth it.
March 22, 2013
Hell to Pay is the third and as far as I'm aware the final book in the To Hell & Back series mentioned in the above synopsis taken from the Angry Robot site. It returns us to the world of Chesney Arnstruther and company, which I discovered last year with the publication of
Costume Not Included
, the second book in the series. I was roped into that by the terrific cover, which was a fabulous as this one, but enjoyed it beyond my expectations. Hell to Pay was less surprising, mostly due to my familiarity with the world and Hughes' writing this time around, but still a hugely fun read and with more complexity than the cover would make you suspect.
As in the previous books our protagonist is Chesney Arnstruther, a.k.a. the Actionary, a crime-fighting super hero. He's quit work and turned to full-time crime-fighting since the last book, having taken up residence in the Hardacre manor with his girlfriend Melda. One of the things that impressed me a lot in the last book was Hughes' treatment of Chesney's character and his depiction of his autism. This time around, Chesney has been 'cured' from his autism due to his contact with Joshua Josephson a.k.a. the other Yeshua, and is learning to deal with life as a 'normal' person. While on the one hand Chesney's troubles with adjusting are convincing and certainly funny, I did have some trouble swallowing this development, as the terms cured and normal in the context of high-functioning autism makes me somewhat uncomfortable. As I said in my review for Costume Not Included, I have several high-functioning autistic people in my life and I don't know whether some of them would consider it a boon to be cured of it. Fortunately, Hughes does address this in the narrative, as Chesney at several points in the narrative bemoans the fact that he's lost his moments of clarity – his pools of light – in which everything just slotted together or ponders that previously he was clueless to some of the communicational clues people send out and that made life a lot easier, because he didn't have to worry about it.
In this concluding volume of the trilogy, II was far more fascinated with the way Hughes developed Xaphan. He is the demon responsible for all of Chesney's superpowers and his sidekick for most of the story. Several times during the novel Hughes emphasizes that both angels and demons, unlike humans, do not have free will, they can only function by the willpower of respectively God and the Devil and in the case of demons through the will of the mortal they are bound to serve. This is illustrated by the fact that demons don't know anything unless it's needful for them to know it or the Devil wants them to know. However, in Hell to Pay Xaphan realises that something is off when he suddenly seems capable of independent thought. It seems as if he is developing free will, maybe even a soul. He finds this just as disconcerting as Chesney finds having to learn to deal with (other people's) emotions and it makes for a great look at what makes an individual function as an independent entity and how complex it is to navigate the morass of morality, consequences, and responsibility. Taken together, the books are very much a meditation on individuality, free will, human nature, and good and evil.
Plot-wise, I had some mixed feelings about Hell to Pay. While I liked the way the plot surrounding the Twenty that started last book was wrapped up, it was both far less and far more complex than I expected. There was far less sleuthing and far more connecting the dots involved, which I found a shame, as I'd enjoyed that in the previous book. Fortunately however, the picture formed once the dots were connected was quite layered. The book seemingly deals far more with the fall-out from the previous book, than that one did with the first one as well, which made me wish I'd have been able to read them closer together—or reread Costume Not Included before starting Hell to Pay. This is mitigated a little bit by the final reveal and denouement of the series, which makes everything in the previous books the result of events catalysed by one unexpected decision. Still the resolution of the book went by a little fast and the ending, while cool, was rather unexpected.
Hell to Pay arguably had some disappointing elements, but on the whole it was a highly enjoyable read, with some interesting philosophical underpinnings and surprising twists. The book makes for a satisfying ending to the To Hell & Back series, which gave us a quirky, off-beat story about an unlikely super hero, with unexpected depths. I have the first book in the series on my shelf and I really need to take the time to read it as it'll allow me to get the full picture, even if I'll be sad to say goodbye to Chesney and friends for real once I finish it.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
As in the previous books our protagonist is Chesney Arnstruther, a.k.a. the Actionary, a crime-fighting super hero. He's quit work and turned to full-time crime-fighting since the last book, having taken up residence in the Hardacre manor with his girlfriend Melda. One of the things that impressed me a lot in the last book was Hughes' treatment of Chesney's character and his depiction of his autism. This time around, Chesney has been 'cured' from his autism due to his contact with Joshua Josephson a.k.a. the other Yeshua, and is learning to deal with life as a 'normal' person. While on the one hand Chesney's troubles with adjusting are convincing and certainly funny, I did have some trouble swallowing this development, as the terms cured and normal in the context of high-functioning autism makes me somewhat uncomfortable. As I said in my review for Costume Not Included, I have several high-functioning autistic people in my life and I don't know whether some of them would consider it a boon to be cured of it. Fortunately, Hughes does address this in the narrative, as Chesney at several points in the narrative bemoans the fact that he's lost his moments of clarity – his pools of light – in which everything just slotted together or ponders that previously he was clueless to some of the communicational clues people send out and that made life a lot easier, because he didn't have to worry about it.
In this concluding volume of the trilogy, II was far more fascinated with the way Hughes developed Xaphan. He is the demon responsible for all of Chesney's superpowers and his sidekick for most of the story. Several times during the novel Hughes emphasizes that both angels and demons, unlike humans, do not have free will, they can only function by the willpower of respectively God and the Devil and in the case of demons through the will of the mortal they are bound to serve. This is illustrated by the fact that demons don't know anything unless it's needful for them to know it or the Devil wants them to know. However, in Hell to Pay Xaphan realises that something is off when he suddenly seems capable of independent thought. It seems as if he is developing free will, maybe even a soul. He finds this just as disconcerting as Chesney finds having to learn to deal with (other people's) emotions and it makes for a great look at what makes an individual function as an independent entity and how complex it is to navigate the morass of morality, consequences, and responsibility. Taken together, the books are very much a meditation on individuality, free will, human nature, and good and evil.
Plot-wise, I had some mixed feelings about Hell to Pay. While I liked the way the plot surrounding the Twenty that started last book was wrapped up, it was both far less and far more complex than I expected. There was far less sleuthing and far more connecting the dots involved, which I found a shame, as I'd enjoyed that in the previous book. Fortunately however, the picture formed once the dots were connected was quite layered. The book seemingly deals far more with the fall-out from the previous book, than that one did with the first one as well, which made me wish I'd have been able to read them closer together—or reread Costume Not Included before starting Hell to Pay. This is mitigated a little bit by the final reveal and denouement of the series, which makes everything in the previous books the result of events catalysed by one unexpected decision. Still the resolution of the book went by a little fast and the ending, while cool, was rather unexpected.
Hell to Pay arguably had some disappointing elements, but on the whole it was a highly enjoyable read, with some interesting philosophical underpinnings and surprising twists. The book makes for a satisfying ending to the To Hell & Back series, which gave us a quirky, off-beat story about an unlikely super hero, with unexpected depths. I have the first book in the series on my shelf and I really need to take the time to read it as it'll allow me to get the full picture, even if I'll be sad to say goodbye to Chesney and friends for real once I finish it.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
June 30, 2014
Here we are at the end of the To Hell and Back trilogy. As I said in my Dreams of Gods and Monsters review, a trilogy works best for me if each successive book raises the stakes and widens the scope of its world. By these criteria, Matthew Hughes has succeeded. The first book introduces Chesney Arnstruther, a high-functioning autistic man whose world is mostly numbers until he accidentally summons a demon, incites a strike in Hell, and becomes the Actionary, a superhero. The second book offers insights into the relationship between Heaven and Hell and hints that the universe is a book God is writing. The third book expands on these ideas, discarding some and fleshing out others. As Chesney adjusts to Joshua’s healing of his autism, Hell flounders about while Satan is AWOL, and it becomes apparent that something is going on.
Hell to Pay is a lot of fun for someone who has read the first two books. Those were entertaining but not great; in particular, they tended to suffer from flatter characters than I like. While the characterization hasn’t improved dramatically here, it has improved, which helps. Chesney and Melda’s relationship feels more like that of a real couple, with cracks and cuddles alike. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Xaphan gets a more expanded viewpoint in this novel, something I really enjoyed.
But where this book excels as a conclusion to the series is the way that Hughes deploys a considerable amount of foreshadowing to build towards a final, moving climax. Using the plot device that demons and angels only know exactly what Satan or God needs them to know, Hughes starts to drop hints that something is happening—that God is pulling strings at a frightfully alarming rate. Billy Hardacre’s conjecture that the world is a book proves not to be entirely accurate; worse still, it appears that Chesney’s meddling from the very beginning of the series has done more serious damage than we initially thought. All of this is a bad thing for our heroes, who find themselves going the way of the Chikkichakk. What, you’ve never heard of the Chikkichakk? Hmm … maybe there’s a reason for that.
In short, I loved how we learn more about the mechanics of this universe in Hell to Pay. It’s just so fascinating. Hughes has clearly put thought into how this works, what angels and demons actually are as beings, and how they differ from regular old people. For those who have read the first two books in the series, then, this book provides a lot of answers. And while it’s a little heavy on the exposition, I wouldn’t say that Hughes gives these answers at the expense of a plot. This book is much more “big picture” than the first two, which a much-reduced emphasis on Chesney’s actions on Earth or his role as the Actionary. However, there is still plenty of conflict happening. Blowdell is back, raised by the Archduke Adramaleka, who is starting to entertain usurping notions during Satan’s extended absence.
Hughes manages all this with a kind of dry tone that others are comparing to Christopher Moore or Terry Pratchett, and I’d agree. Some authors are great and portraying demon stories as dark, gritty, horrific. Others tend towards a balance of light and dark, the humour offsetting the tragedy. Hughes’ take is almost entirely comic—and in this case, it works splendidly. It’s a Good Omens–like look at Heaven and Hell.
Chesney’s evolution as a character continues. He’s much less sure of himself in this book, now that his pools of light have been replaced by a wider understanding of human emotions and signals. I’m not all that satisfied by the ending—without going into spoilers, let’s just say that I’m sceptical Melda would find it an acceptable way to resolve their relationship troubles—but I can sympathize with the struggle Chesney undergoes. He’s starting to understand the profound consequences of being a hero, of attempting to fight the bad guys, and of the collateral damage that inevitably occurs. The underlying theme of morality, of what it means to strive towards being a moral person, is present mostly in Chesney’s self-examination. Should he kill? Is that justified? Should he help someone torture for revenge? It’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows.
After two books that steadily improved, Hell to Pay continues this trajectory. It’s a satisfying conclusion to the series, answering questions and offering a tense standoff to be resolved only through clever wrangling. Hughes has his characters face-off essentially against God and, if not exactly win, then draw. (I’m not sure what happens to Denby.) If you haven’t read the first two books, then I’d recommend them on the strength of this one. The Damned Busters is a lukewarm experience, but it’s still entertaining and well worth the read to what proves to be an original and enjoyable series.
My reviews of To Hell & Back:
← Costume Not Included
Hell to Pay is a lot of fun for someone who has read the first two books. Those were entertaining but not great; in particular, they tended to suffer from flatter characters than I like. While the characterization hasn’t improved dramatically here, it has improved, which helps. Chesney and Melda’s relationship feels more like that of a real couple, with cracks and cuddles alike. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Xaphan gets a more expanded viewpoint in this novel, something I really enjoyed.
But where this book excels as a conclusion to the series is the way that Hughes deploys a considerable amount of foreshadowing to build towards a final, moving climax. Using the plot device that demons and angels only know exactly what Satan or God needs them to know, Hughes starts to drop hints that something is happening—that God is pulling strings at a frightfully alarming rate. Billy Hardacre’s conjecture that the world is a book proves not to be entirely accurate; worse still, it appears that Chesney’s meddling from the very beginning of the series has done more serious damage than we initially thought. All of this is a bad thing for our heroes, who find themselves going the way of the Chikkichakk. What, you’ve never heard of the Chikkichakk? Hmm … maybe there’s a reason for that.
In short, I loved how we learn more about the mechanics of this universe in Hell to Pay. It’s just so fascinating. Hughes has clearly put thought into how this works, what angels and demons actually are as beings, and how they differ from regular old people. For those who have read the first two books in the series, then, this book provides a lot of answers. And while it’s a little heavy on the exposition, I wouldn’t say that Hughes gives these answers at the expense of a plot. This book is much more “big picture” than the first two, which a much-reduced emphasis on Chesney’s actions on Earth or his role as the Actionary. However, there is still plenty of conflict happening. Blowdell is back, raised by the Archduke Adramaleka, who is starting to entertain usurping notions during Satan’s extended absence.
Hughes manages all this with a kind of dry tone that others are comparing to Christopher Moore or Terry Pratchett, and I’d agree. Some authors are great and portraying demon stories as dark, gritty, horrific. Others tend towards a balance of light and dark, the humour offsetting the tragedy. Hughes’ take is almost entirely comic—and in this case, it works splendidly. It’s a Good Omens–like look at Heaven and Hell.
Chesney’s evolution as a character continues. He’s much less sure of himself in this book, now that his pools of light have been replaced by a wider understanding of human emotions and signals. I’m not all that satisfied by the ending—without going into spoilers, let’s just say that I’m sceptical Melda would find it an acceptable way to resolve their relationship troubles—but I can sympathize with the struggle Chesney undergoes. He’s starting to understand the profound consequences of being a hero, of attempting to fight the bad guys, and of the collateral damage that inevitably occurs. The underlying theme of morality, of what it means to strive towards being a moral person, is present mostly in Chesney’s self-examination. Should he kill? Is that justified? Should he help someone torture for revenge? It’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows.
After two books that steadily improved, Hell to Pay continues this trajectory. It’s a satisfying conclusion to the series, answering questions and offering a tense standoff to be resolved only through clever wrangling. Hughes has his characters face-off essentially against God and, if not exactly win, then draw. (I’m not sure what happens to Denby.) If you haven’t read the first two books, then I’d recommend them on the strength of this one. The Damned Busters is a lukewarm experience, but it’s still entertaining and well worth the read to what proves to be an original and enjoyable series.
My reviews of To Hell & Back:
← Costume Not Included
August 6, 2023
A decent enough read, nowhere near as much fun as his best novels for me (Fools Errant will always be my favourite).
Sometimes it's the little things that will bring down a book. This one was oddly repetitive, as if the author feared we wouldn't remember the rules he'd set out for us. So we had to endure several paragraphs where we're reminded that demons don't have wills of their own, or that they don't know things unless Lucifer intends them to know it, rules of that sort. And we'd endure similar paragraphs covering the same exposition, over and over, each time they mattered to the plot (which didn't really take off until two-thirds of the way through the book).
The protagonist didn't propel the plot at all, but just reacted to the forces against him. Mind you, there was an unnecessary subplot in the first half of the book which was our hero's idea, but it had not bearing on anything else and could have been removed. So much more satisfying when the hero's attempts to do A precipitate B, inadvertently. It's not nearly so much fun to watch protagonists have to react as it is to see them act.
Oh, and there was a short story as far as I can tell tacked on to the beginning of the book, two chapters' worth, entirely unnecessary. Once the short story's action was concluded, the book proper began. Not a good idea, sort of a momentum killer to have to restart again from scratch.
Finally, we had (let me see) at least 9 points of view, which I think is too many, despite my enjoyment of Arthur Hailey novels in my youth; to paraphrase Wilde, it looks like carelessness.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
Sometimes it's the little things that will bring down a book. This one was oddly repetitive, as if the author feared we wouldn't remember the rules he'd set out for us. So we had to endure several paragraphs where we're reminded that demons don't have wills of their own, or that they don't know things unless Lucifer intends them to know it, rules of that sort. And we'd endure similar paragraphs covering the same exposition, over and over, each time they mattered to the plot (which didn't really take off until two-thirds of the way through the book).
The protagonist didn't propel the plot at all, but just reacted to the forces against him. Mind you, there was an unnecessary subplot in the first half of the book which was our hero's idea, but it had not bearing on anything else and could have been removed. So much more satisfying when the hero's attempts to do A precipitate B, inadvertently. It's not nearly so much fun to watch protagonists have to react as it is to see them act.
Oh, and there was a short story as far as I can tell tacked on to the beginning of the book, two chapters' worth, entirely unnecessary. Once the short story's action was concluded, the book proper began. Not a good idea, sort of a momentum killer to have to restart again from scratch.
Finally, we had (let me see) at least 9 points of view, which I think is too many, despite my enjoyment of Arthur Hailey novels in my youth; to paraphrase Wilde, it looks like carelessness.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
May 4, 2018
Last night I was determined to finish this book and had to fight through the last ten pages, just as I’d fought through nearly three quarters of it over the past three months.
Between it being just a pointless book and my general state of exhaustion from living under the tyrannical rule of a toddler, getting through this book has been a battle. The good news is this was the last book in the series and I‘m now free of Chesney Armstruther and his accidental war between heaven and hell. (And dinosaur people.) The bad news is that when I finished it I couldn’t quite believe it was over, and continued flipping pages through the author acknowledgements as if there was some literary equivalent of the Marvel post credits scene that would make it all worth it.
Realizing there wasn’t I had to ask, “That’s it?” And not in a good way. Not in a, “oh no, that’s all? I need twelve more books to give me a satisfying level of closure about all of these complete and well written characters I’ve grown to love as family, and satisfying storylines and character arcs we’ve all been through together.”
Nope. It was more of a, “that’s really how you’re going to wrap up this bullshit? By completely negating the last three books you dragged me through over the span of two pages and then having a picnic?”
The author spent more time explaining dinosaur people than he did writing a conclusion to this story, not to mention how misguided and insulting his attitude towards individuals with autism comes across.
The best thing about this series was the cover art.
Between it being just a pointless book and my general state of exhaustion from living under the tyrannical rule of a toddler, getting through this book has been a battle. The good news is this was the last book in the series and I‘m now free of Chesney Armstruther and his accidental war between heaven and hell. (And dinosaur people.) The bad news is that when I finished it I couldn’t quite believe it was over, and continued flipping pages through the author acknowledgements as if there was some literary equivalent of the Marvel post credits scene that would make it all worth it.
Realizing there wasn’t I had to ask, “That’s it?” And not in a good way. Not in a, “oh no, that’s all? I need twelve more books to give me a satisfying level of closure about all of these complete and well written characters I’ve grown to love as family, and satisfying storylines and character arcs we’ve all been through together.”
Nope. It was more of a, “that’s really how you’re going to wrap up this bullshit? By completely negating the last three books you dragged me through over the span of two pages and then having a picnic?”
The author spent more time explaining dinosaur people than he did writing a conclusion to this story, not to mention how misguided and insulting his attitude towards individuals with autism comes across.
The best thing about this series was the cover art.
November 21, 2025
Hell to Pay is one of those rare third-installments that not only keeps the momentum going but actually deepens everything that made the series great. Following Chesney Arnstruther our awkward, math-loving actuary turned reluctant superhero felt even more entertaining this time around. The book balances humor, heart, and outright absurdity in a way that somehow feels completely natural.
What I enjoyed most is how Matthew Hughes mixes the cosmic with the mundane: demons with a sense of sarcasm, superheroes with relationship problems, and supernatural plots tangled up with petty human schemes. Xaphan, in particular, stole so many scenes with his quirky, infernal commentary.
The expanding cast Arthur Wrigley with his quiet wickedness, Simon Magus living it up in Vegas, and the Chikkichikk (yes, warrior dinosaurs!) brings a sense of unpredictability that kept me engaged the entire time. The book has a way of being funny without ever losing the emotional weight behind Chesney’s journey.
If you like fantasy that refuses to take itself too seriously while still offering rich world-building and sharp plotting, this one is a standout. I closed the final page with a big grin, and it reminded me why I enjoy this series so much.
What I enjoyed most is how Matthew Hughes mixes the cosmic with the mundane: demons with a sense of sarcasm, superheroes with relationship problems, and supernatural plots tangled up with petty human schemes. Xaphan, in particular, stole so many scenes with his quirky, infernal commentary.
The expanding cast Arthur Wrigley with his quiet wickedness, Simon Magus living it up in Vegas, and the Chikkichikk (yes, warrior dinosaurs!) brings a sense of unpredictability that kept me engaged the entire time. The book has a way of being funny without ever losing the emotional weight behind Chesney’s journey.
If you like fantasy that refuses to take itself too seriously while still offering rich world-building and sharp plotting, this one is a standout. I closed the final page with a big grin, and it reminded me why I enjoy this series so much.
May 30, 2018
I didn't think this was the best ending to a series which started out so promising. It honestly felt as if the author didn't know how to end the series, which does make a bit of sense because it also sounds like the God in the story isn't sure what he is doing either. I was somewhat disappointed, and at the end I didn't care for most, if any, of the characters. After reading this entire series I don't think I would recommend it, unless you want something different but also disappointing.
April 25, 2023
Not that satisfying - Chesney is picking up what is to him a loose end from The Damned Busters and trying to deal with it, while also dealing with having been made 'normal' ie non-autistic and the impact that has on his relationship with Melda. The story is good, but the ending, for me, didn't work. I wondered if Hughes had written himself into a corner
May 21, 2022
This is a fitting conclusion to Matthew Hughes trilogy.
September 18, 2015
Today's post is on Hell to Pay by Matthew Hughes. It is the last in his To Hell and Back series. It is 332 pages long and is published by Angry Robot. The cover is again in comic book panel form with the hero at the top and other scenes from the plot on it. The intended reader is someone who has read the first two. There is some language, talk of sex, and violence in this book. The story is told from the third person close of the characters moving from one to another as the story progresses. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- Meet Chesney Arnsthruther: once a mild-mannered insurance actuary, now a full-time crime-fighting superhero.Meet Xaphan: wise-cracking demon and the source of (almost) all of Chesney's powers.Meet Arthur Wrigley, a modest yet charming older gentleman whose nasty little hobby is fleecing innocent widows. Meets Simon Magus, ancient mystic from Biblical times now very much enamoured of Vegas, baby.And pray you never meet the Chikkckikk, a proud and ancient race of, well, warrior dinosaurs, from the universe that God made then rejected before He started monkeying around with this one. What the hell is going on, this is definitely the third book in the wondrous To Hell & Back saga.
Review- This is the weakest of the trilogy. The first one was so funny then the second was not bad but not as funny and this one was not funny at all. Everything that I really liked about the first book is just gone in this one. The funny conminterary about religion, superheros, and the why of the world is just tossed out the window. Instead we get Dues Ex in this one. Nothing is what the characters or we the readers thought it was. In the end God makes Chesney into a little god for reasons that I just do not get. Because God is all powerful in this world, he could have just remade the opening scene in the first book and everything would have been fixed. Instead we get Dues Ex'ed. I hate that so much. I still love the first book. It is still funny and interesting but the other two were just really disappointing to me.
I give this book a Two out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this book with my own money.
From the back of the book- Meet Chesney Arnsthruther: once a mild-mannered insurance actuary, now a full-time crime-fighting superhero.Meet Xaphan: wise-cracking demon and the source of (almost) all of Chesney's powers.Meet Arthur Wrigley, a modest yet charming older gentleman whose nasty little hobby is fleecing innocent widows. Meets Simon Magus, ancient mystic from Biblical times now very much enamoured of Vegas, baby.And pray you never meet the Chikkckikk, a proud and ancient race of, well, warrior dinosaurs, from the universe that God made then rejected before He started monkeying around with this one. What the hell is going on, this is definitely the third book in the wondrous To Hell & Back saga.
Review- This is the weakest of the trilogy. The first one was so funny then the second was not bad but not as funny and this one was not funny at all. Everything that I really liked about the first book is just gone in this one. The funny conminterary about religion, superheros, and the why of the world is just tossed out the window. Instead we get Dues Ex in this one. Nothing is what the characters or we the readers thought it was. In the end God makes Chesney into a little god for reasons that I just do not get. Because God is all powerful in this world, he could have just remade the opening scene in the first book and everything would have been fixed. Instead we get Dues Ex'ed. I hate that so much. I still love the first book. It is still funny and interesting but the other two were just really disappointing to me.
I give this book a Two out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this book with my own money.
December 28, 2016
Hell to Pay (2013) 332 pages by Matthew Hughes.
This series starts when Chesney inadvertently summons a demon. The demon that appeared would not leave without a contract for his soul and Chesney refused to sign, causing hell to go on strike, and culminating with Chesney getting the use of Xaphan for two hours a day to fight crime. Damned Busters and Costume Not Included are fun reads where Chesney had lived in a world where there were pools of light, everything black and white. He was healed of his autism by Joshua and now sees shades of gray.
Chesney wants stop a crime where there are no side effects. Where the victims aren't just taken from the fire only to be put back in the frying pan, but really helped. He's feeling really guilty about Poppy Paxson who is physically OK, but has just sat around all day every day since she was kidnapped by Blowdell, taken to hell, and eventually rescued. Xaphan tells Chesney that Simon Magus is the only one that could heal Poppy.
We follow the Archduke of hell who is taking advantage of Satan's absence to make decisions, like finding the [not] dead Blowdell and sending him back to Earth. We follow Denby is the new police commissioner and he wants to take down the twenty, the group of corrupt businessmen who have been controlling the city for generations. We follow Tressider who is one of the twenty and spooky guy hidden on a secret floor in his office building. And the first chapter follows con man Arthur Wrigley.
Hughes weaves an interesting story and gives depth to a multitude of characters. Quick fun read, leave or take the ending. Great series.
This series starts when Chesney inadvertently summons a demon. The demon that appeared would not leave without a contract for his soul and Chesney refused to sign, causing hell to go on strike, and culminating with Chesney getting the use of Xaphan for two hours a day to fight crime. Damned Busters and Costume Not Included are fun reads where Chesney had lived in a world where there were pools of light, everything black and white. He was healed of his autism by Joshua and now sees shades of gray.
Chesney wants stop a crime where there are no side effects. Where the victims aren't just taken from the fire only to be put back in the frying pan, but really helped. He's feeling really guilty about Poppy Paxson who is physically OK, but has just sat around all day every day since she was kidnapped by Blowdell, taken to hell, and eventually rescued. Xaphan tells Chesney that Simon Magus is the only one that could heal Poppy.
We follow the Archduke of hell who is taking advantage of Satan's absence to make decisions, like finding the [not] dead Blowdell and sending him back to Earth. We follow Denby is the new police commissioner and he wants to take down the twenty, the group of corrupt businessmen who have been controlling the city for generations. We follow Tressider who is one of the twenty and spooky guy hidden on a secret floor in his office building. And the first chapter follows con man Arthur Wrigley.
Hughes weaves an interesting story and gives depth to a multitude of characters. Quick fun read, leave or take the ending. Great series.
February 24, 2015
The end of the Chesney Arnstruther story.
I assume this is the last story about Chesney, the numerary/autistic/super-hero/??? who accidentally made the world fall to pieces (not literally) back in book one.
I can't go into a lot of details about the plot without getting spoilery, but some people recur from previous books, a lot of really weird things happen, and then BAM - it ends, wrapped up by a deus ex deus at the end (not a typo).
This book was strange for me, as the whole series has been. There's parts that are fascinating, and there's parts that just seem to drag. I guess that's the definition of uneven pacing. There's many plot lines that are thrown in that never really go anywhere, and the way that the story is wrapped up feels regressive and out of nowhere. I didn't *dislike* the book, but I can't say I'm likely to ever read the series again.
****** SPOILER BELOW ******************
You know, thinking about it, I think the ending is indicative of the author's process through the book. Just as God decides in the book that the path the story's gone down doesn't work, I think the author also decided that the path the various plotlines are going down don't work. It's like a Monty Python sketch, where they couldn't figure out how to end it, so the cops just show up, or they drop a weight on someone, or John Cleese shows up and says "And now for something completely different". I think that's where my frustration with the book lies - there's interesting plotlines that just... never meant anything, really.
I assume this is the last story about Chesney, the numerary/autistic/super-hero/??? who accidentally made the world fall to pieces (not literally) back in book one.
I can't go into a lot of details about the plot without getting spoilery, but some people recur from previous books, a lot of really weird things happen, and then BAM - it ends, wrapped up by a deus ex deus at the end (not a typo).
This book was strange for me, as the whole series has been. There's parts that are fascinating, and there's parts that just seem to drag. I guess that's the definition of uneven pacing. There's many plot lines that are thrown in that never really go anywhere, and the way that the story is wrapped up feels regressive and out of nowhere. I didn't *dislike* the book, but I can't say I'm likely to ever read the series again.
****** SPOILER BELOW ******************
You know, thinking about it, I think the ending is indicative of the author's process through the book. Just as God decides in the book that the path the story's gone down doesn't work, I think the author also decided that the path the various plotlines are going down don't work. It's like a Monty Python sketch, where they couldn't figure out how to end it, so the cops just show up, or they drop a weight on someone, or John Cleese shows up and says "And now for something completely different". I think that's where my frustration with the book lies - there's interesting plotlines that just... never meant anything, really.
March 1, 2013
I'm not sure how to rate this book. The first two books in the trilogy felt considerably more light-hearted than this one. That's not a complaint against this book. Merely an observation. By comparison to the first two (which, as this is the third book in a trilogy, seems only fair), we saw considerably less of the Actionary. For that matter, we saw considerably less of most of the supporting cast. On the other hand, it felt as though the author had a very specific direction he wanted this story to go and he didn't stray too far from the narrative path in order to get there.
I enjoy books that speculate on the mechanics of how Heaven and Hell work, and Matthew Hughes continues to deliver an enjoyable approach to that. It was also good to see a definitive conclusion to this story, even if a part of me wished the tale would continue to unfold. I would hope that, at some point in the future, the author writes another novel built around some of the "angels and demons" he introduced to us.
If you've read the first two books in this trilogy, I strongly recommend this book to bring closure to Chesney's world. And if you haven't read the first two, I'd strongly recommend them ("The Damned Busters" and "Costume Not Included"). And once you've read those, that brings you full circle back to my strong recommendation to read this one.
This wasn't the strongest book in the series, but it certainly didn't ruin it for me, either.
I enjoy books that speculate on the mechanics of how Heaven and Hell work, and Matthew Hughes continues to deliver an enjoyable approach to that. It was also good to see a definitive conclusion to this story, even if a part of me wished the tale would continue to unfold. I would hope that, at some point in the future, the author writes another novel built around some of the "angels and demons" he introduced to us.
If you've read the first two books in this trilogy, I strongly recommend this book to bring closure to Chesney's world. And if you haven't read the first two, I'd strongly recommend them ("The Damned Busters" and "Costume Not Included"). And once you've read those, that brings you full circle back to my strong recommendation to read this one.
This wasn't the strongest book in the series, but it certainly didn't ruin it for me, either.
July 20, 2013
Less religion in this one. So far.
In this third book, and probably the last of the series called To Hell & Back, we get to see a lot more of Hell and how it's run.
In parallel, new Chief of Police Denby is seeing how the city is run by the Twenty, which he plans to take out of power, since they're corrupt to the core.
No longer autistic, Chesney has acquired some new skills. With them, he begins to fight crime in other places, though his contract with Satan says his own city is the only place he can practice his skills. But there's precious little petty crime there anymore since he started being the Actionary.
Our story opens with the fact that Chesney is having to deal with guilt from a side effect of an earlier escapade when his partner, Xaphan, wiped some memories. A woman had been transported to Hell (of necessity) and would have gone mad if her memories of that event hadn't been wiped. However, now she's catatonic. What he goes through to fix her may change the World!
And just WHAT is going on behind the secret door in the back of the armoire in Tressider's office on the premises of Baiche, Lobeer, Tressider???
In this third book, and probably the last of the series called To Hell & Back, we get to see a lot more of Hell and how it's run.
In parallel, new Chief of Police Denby is seeing how the city is run by the Twenty, which he plans to take out of power, since they're corrupt to the core.
No longer autistic, Chesney has acquired some new skills. With them, he begins to fight crime in other places, though his contract with Satan says his own city is the only place he can practice his skills. But there's precious little petty crime there anymore since he started being the Actionary.
Our story opens with the fact that Chesney is having to deal with guilt from a side effect of an earlier escapade when his partner, Xaphan, wiped some memories. A woman had been transported to Hell (of necessity) and would have gone mad if her memories of that event hadn't been wiped. However, now she's catatonic. What he goes through to fix her may change the World!
And just WHAT is going on behind the secret door in the back of the armoire in Tressider's office on the premises of Baiche, Lobeer, Tressider???
February 25, 2013
In this conclusion to Chesney Arnstruther's adventures, author Matthew Hughes take a more philosophical and darker turn to his tale of the autistic actuary turned crime fighter, who is added and abetted in his deeds of good by former Al Capone assistant-now-demon, Xaphan.
Hughes continues the concept God is writing a book and making up the plot as He goes. Along the way we are introduced to Biblical characters who have been written-out, and who have found themselves caught in an equivalent of a Groundhog's Day loop.
The humour that started with The Damned Busters diminishes greatly in this third book, and for some readers who are seeking a farcical romp may find this third instalment off-putting. For myself, I found the story quite intriguing, far more developed and rounded than the almost comic-book narrative of the first.
All things considered, a satisfying end to an intelligently written trilogy, from an author who deftly handles farce and wit.
Hughes continues the concept God is writing a book and making up the plot as He goes. Along the way we are introduced to Biblical characters who have been written-out, and who have found themselves caught in an equivalent of a Groundhog's Day loop.
The humour that started with The Damned Busters diminishes greatly in this third book, and for some readers who are seeking a farcical romp may find this third instalment off-putting. For myself, I found the story quite intriguing, far more developed and rounded than the almost comic-book narrative of the first.
All things considered, a satisfying end to an intelligently written trilogy, from an author who deftly handles farce and wit.
July 23, 2017
I’ve been waiting for Hell to Pay, the continuation of Matthew Hughes’ highly comical saga of Chesney Arnstruther, for months now. In the first book, Chesney accidentally summoned a demon. When he refused to actually sell his soul, Chesney kicked off a crisis Upstairs and Down. The upshot of the crisis for Chesney was that he got a demon to help him become a crime fighter called The Actionary. The crisis got even more complicated in the second book. By this book, Chesney’s entire universe has become unstable because so many of its fundamental rules have been broken...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
April 15, 2013
So i just finished what i believe to be the final book in the series, and although i thoroughly enjoyed the last instalment. . . the vibe of this book was distinctly different from the previous 2 books. . . Where the first 2 books had more humor and a bit lighter feel to them, the last book was decidedly darker. . .not to say there was no humor involved just that it was more spaced out. . .As i said although i enjoyed the story i don't see this one as being the best instalment of the three. . . Matthew Hughes tackles an age old question in this series about what are we here for. . . what does it all mean and what is it all leading to. . . he goes about addressing these questions in an original and funny way. . . If u haven't read the first 2 books i strongly recomend it before u read this last one so u can get the complete feel of the story line.
January 19, 2015
I have to say I was disappointed in this final installment of this series. There was more action in this than the previous, and a little more craziness - but while I was invested enough to read through and figure out what was going on, I didn't find it nearly as fun or entertaining. The first book read a little like a toy-train wreck, seeing what chaos might ensue while remaining firmly in the world of fantasy. But I feel like the author at last identified too much with the indifferent supreme being who was the cause of all this strife. As though he weren't sure himself what he wanted and kept writing to see what happened next. I felt like the ending was a real cop-out, and that is just too bad for something which started so imaginitively.
April 11, 2014
Wonderful comic book-style book really, really hit a lot of character notes while advancing its plot. The third book in a series, it gave plenty of background and exposition without bogging down. Since I haven't read the other two (and probably won't) it stands by itself very, very well. Hughes did an excellent job of pulling me in without beating me over the head with stuff I needed to know to enjoy the story. Very, very well written. Thoroughly enjoyable and I smiled through most of it. Great entertainment and highly recommended.
December 31, 2014
The core concept is somewhat curious, however, the writing is a little dull and I sometimes have severe issues with the morality depicted by the clearly heroic protagonist. Of course, sending anyone to Hell seems unforgivable to me (whatever your religious beliefs, at least we can all agree that no human should have that power), and the first PoV character's fate is downright disturbing.
Pass for me, although there is some promise in the premise, maybe if the writing was dark enough to match the events.
Pass for me, although there is some promise in the premise, maybe if the writing was dark enough to match the events.
August 15, 2015
Finished a year back, disappointing on the levels of changing the tone from the previous two books (more fun, fast, and free-flowing) and changing drastically the personality of Chesney. The two-stars are only for the originality of the series.
October 19, 2013
I enjoyed the first 2 in the series much more than this book. This one had much less comic book-ish superhero adventure and as a result was darker than I would have wanted. After the pace and light-hearted atmosphere of books 1 and 2, I guess I just expected more of the same.
November 27, 2014
The ending felt incomplete (which may be because there's going to be a 4th book?) and I'm not really sure where he could go from here. I think the story was pretty solid but got a little messy/side tracked when the Chikkichikk got involved.
June 12, 2013
Funny and entertaining.
July 10, 2020
Let me get this straight... the universe is just a complicated mathematical algorithm? And we are just nodes on a graph? That is so sweet!
May 3, 2013
I liked this one, but I think I should have read the second book before this one. I didn't realize that there was another book between this and the first one, and sometimes felt a bit lost.
September 8, 2013
This is an excellent way of concluding the trilogy.
http://opionator.wordpress.com/2013/0...
http://opionator.wordpress.com/2013/0...
January 30, 2014
I'm not really a sci-fi fan but a friend really loved it. He said it was perfect to blow through on a lazy weekend.
January 10, 2014
Kind of an odd (yet fitting) ending to the trilogy, but a lot of fun to read. Definitely going into my keep pile!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews