Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Happy Hour in Hell-Tad Williams

Happy Hour in Hell

Tad Williams

DAW, Sep 3 2013, $25.95

ISBN 9780756408152



The Heaven equivalent of Internal Affairs has placed the Angel Doloriel on suspension as they investigate whether his activities especially his affair, friendships and advocacy job to save the souls of the recently departed crossed the acceptable line (see The Dirty Streets of Heaven). Known in the Bay Area as Bobby Dollar, he has no time for angelic inspectors as his girlfriend Caz the Countess of the Cold Hands is trapped in Hell by her owner Eligor the Horseman, whom the fallen angel stole a magical feather from the Horseman.



Lacking the patience of a hyperactive human and knowing he must be insane, Bobby dons a demon body to enter Hell to rescue his beloved demon. Making his mission even crazier, Bobby knows that Eligor has a second reason to burn him for eternity as he stole a magical feather from the Horseman. Complicating his trek through hellish layers is decades-dead psychopathic serial killer Smyler who will kill for the hell of it but has a reason with Doloriel: the feather.



The second Bobby Dollar fantasy is a wonderful thriller as the protagonist journeys through a Hell as bureaucratically incompetent as Heaven is. Although at times the pace slows down in Hell, the dark storyline contains plenty of graveyard humor and a horde of mostly sick, though one could argue eccentric, characters from Heaven, Hell and San Judas.



Harriet Klausner

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