The Devil Dances is a trilogy of books written by French author Herve Jubert and later translated into English, about a world in the not too distant future where magic is fairly commonplace (though generally concealed from the general populace), while crime has practically been eliminated. The protaganists are Roberta Morgenstern, a Deadpan Snarker witch, and her handsome but dim partner Clement Martineau.
In the first book Dance of the Assassins, the first murder in decades occurs in the Historic Cities, a sort of theme park for bored rich types where several historical eras have been recreated.
In the sequel The Devil's Tango, a new killer is haunting the streets of Basle, namely the Baron of the Mists, a copycat killer who is murdering the descendants of old criminals. But more worryingly is this deluge being creating outside the city walls, and the upcoming elections...
The third book The Sabbat Samba was not released in English. The Devil's daughter has now been born and is being used by the satanic orders to summon the Devil Himself.
This series contains examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Palladio's death and the revelation the Devil makes to him just before is somewhat pitiable.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Devil's DNA. Also Hans-Friedrich, the psychic hedgehog, who dissapears at the beginning of the sequel making things harder for the heroes.
- Cute Witch: Averted; Roberta is rather short and plump, and usually wears an electric girdle.
- Defiant to the End: When his cover is blown, Gruber announces he is placing the Killers Quadrille under arrest. He escapes, but still...
- The Ditz: Martineau. This is only made worse when he inherits some of his love interest's clumsiness after kissing her.
- Historical Domain Character: La Voisin, Montezuma and Jack the Ripper.
- Literally Shattered Lives: The Family-Unfriendly Death of Morgenstern's reflection.
- Jerkass Genie: The Devil acted this way in regards to the Killers Quadrille, which led to them serving him with a lawsuit.
- Obviously Evil: Fould even looks like Satan, who appears himself (initially in Fould's form) at the end of the first book).
- Pet the Dog: Fould is genuinely quite affectionate to Morgane/Lillith, the Devil's daughter.
- Really 700 Years Old: Palladio uses an image inducer to hide the fact that he is ridiculously decrepit, having made a bargain for immortality.
- Serial-Killer Killer: The Baron of the Mists,
only he targets their descendants. - Toxic Friend Influence: Fould begins to do this to Clement in the second book, furthering his position in the CID whilst encouraging bigotry towards the Gypsies.
- Villain Decay: Fould goes from a cool schemer to a Butt-Monkey at the beginning of the third book, being put in charge of looking after (i.e. dressing and cleaning the baby Lilith) and is stuck to the bathroom ceiling by Morgernstern (and this is just in the first chapter.)
- Would Hurt a Child: La Voisin sacrifices an infant in a satanic ritual.
