Wow. Things get _complicated_. Also, in this book unlike the previous two, nothing really gets resolved - it's setting up the parameters for the situation in the next book. All her enemies, and her possible allies, are still around and active and needing to be dealt with - she has something of an idea what is going on now, that's all. And knows a little more about Jaf (Japh). Though she's still missing one major point that he's repeated dozens of times - ''while you live, I live'' (and I suspect vice versa). She spends a lot of time looking for loopholes in good things - enough that she even gets mad at herself. Japh's stupid stunt at least focused her attention, so she's got a better chance of seeing what's under her nose. The battles are interesting, too - she kept talking, in Dead Man Rising, about how she was way stronger and faster and more able than any normal human - now she's coming up against things where the difference is negligible, she's practically as vulnerable as before. There's a lot of aspects to the story - who's lying about what, who's just being silent, who's the worse danger to her and him and the whole thing. As I said - complicated. I'm eager to read the next book - but it's 1 am and I've got to get up early tomorrow! ( )

I normally enjoy a psychological aspects to books I read, but this was spinning terrible in places, good in others in a way that can't let me give it over a 3. Good points are: the detail and setting and world, especially the language, the way the main character's anger acts on and influences her life, her vein of distrust that poisons her worldview. The less-than-good-points are: at-times cliche dialogue and the forced over-your-head-I-have-a-secret vibe that felt as though the author was beating it against my head through much of the book. I wanted to slap Japh and Dante both, for the writing, themselves, and for having to slough through pages of mental spiraling and...the dialogue. Jeph, you annoying bastard. Alternate-mindset or no, it was difficult to believe that he had a rationale or reason behind it all, other than attempting to be suave and silent... a stereotype further played upon by the men Japh hired on to assist them. They spent the usual boring time flexing jaws and muscles and sizing one another up.

The mixture of qualities gives me a mixed overall view of the work, and the author. ( )

I enjoyed this urban fantasy featuring necromancer/bounty hunter Dante Valentine. I especially liked the way she worked with Japhrimel and others to find the renegade demons in time. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Saint City Sinners. ( )

The continuing story of Dante Valentine, Japherimal and the Devil.

Lucifer demands a meeting with Dante, hires her as a replacement "Right Hand" and asks her to hunt down 4 demons who have fled hell. Japh does some of the negotiations and that's really where it all starts going wrong...

Japh goes back to Hell with Lucifer, sending Dante home. Someone tries to assassinate Dante by crashing a hover full of reactive paint into her house and then blowing it up. Dante flees, but the seeds of doubt are (pretty reasonably) sewn.

The situation continues to be ambiguous, until Japh reveals just how much he's been humouring Dante, and he starts treating her as a chattel. She is not happy at all, feeling her trust has been violated - a situation that I whole heartedly agree with her assessment of.

She does a runner when she can, finds out something that approximates to the truth and feels relieved when Japh turns up and rescues her from Lucifer. She decides that she loves him enough to forgive him - he asks her to help him change and understand her better.

There's a lot of action, a lot of intrigue, quite a lot about the world in which they live (a lot of action in Freetowns), but at heart this is a book about a relationship with two people that don't understand each other, and seem destined to continue down that route. It's well written and engaging on all levels.

One world of caution - having read three of these on the trot, they're intense enough I need a break before I tackle the last two. I feel like I've been throw the ringer with Dante and I need a bit of a break, even if she won't get one - this is really a compliment to the author for pulling me in so much. ( )

I did not enjoy this book much at all. It was laborous to get thru it. I will still read the rest of the series because i like the characters but this book in particular was annoying. The entire book was spent inside Dante's head...whinning about how she can't trust people. I miss the kick butt heroine. It also didn't have much plot. Most books have a background mystery to them. This one ended up being a long book to show she was setup so even the main bounty was bogus. All in all, not a very good read. Maybe it is essential in order to show an impending change of fundamentals for Dante. So in hopes for that, I will go read the next one. But if she keeps wallowing and acting like no one is good enough for her because they keep things from her or lied to her once in their lifetime-write them off. Not cool. Although Jaf was very aggressive and kept her out of the loop-it would annoy anyone. But she was whinning before he took drastic measures.

Laborous read. ( )