Killing Pretty

April 27, 2015
Urban fantasy fans who place a premium on humor are most likely to enjoy Kadrey’s seventh Sandman Slim novel (after The Getaway God). Slim, aka James Stark, is one of the nephilim—half human, half angel—who’s working as a PI in Los Angeles. His powers are pretty impressive; before the book begins, he’d killed “a weasely fragment of God who, if he’d lived, would have ruined the universe.” That, understandably, has annoyed the angelic host, who joins a lengthy roster of Stark’s foes. Thwarting Stark’s hope of returning to more mundane cases, Kadrey gives him another daunting challenge: someone dragged Death into a human body and cut out his heart, killing him, and Stark’s boss, Julie Sola, wants him to find out whodunit. Julie hopes that finding Death’s killer will restore some normalcy, as after the assault “no one is dying anywhere.” There’s little sense of menace or looming darkness, but plenty of over-the-top entertainment. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown Ltd.

June 15, 2015

James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, is trying to go legit. After saving the universe again (in The Getaway God) he has taken a job with a former member of the Golden Vigil and is trying his hand at being a private detective. But Stark's life will never be normal, especially since he has Death sleeping in his storage room. It seems a neo-Nazi cult is trying to set up their own version of Death, and trapped the current Death in a mortal body. It's up to Stark to stop the group and put Death back where he belongs. VERDICT Even though his new boss is always asking Stark to walk the straight and narrow, series fans shouldn't fear that he's going soft. There's still plenty of the violence and mayhem that Stark attracts without even trying. [See Prepub Alert, 2/15/15.]--MM

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2015
Kadrey appears to have wrapped up the epic-size story arc of James Stark, also known as Sandman Slim, who's spent the past six books protecting the world from all manner of supernatural evil. But that doesn't mean we've seen the last of Stark; you just never know with urban fantasy. The new novel reads like a stand-alone, more of a noir mystery with supernatural elements than a pure fantasy. Yes, Stark is a private eye now, and his first case is a whopper: he's hired to find out who killed Death. Partnered with a mortal girl who once beat Deathhe came for her, but she escapedStark probes the dark corners of L.A., trying to track down the perp. The Sandman Slim novels have always had a noirish feel to them, but here the author really embraces the mood (the first line of the book is I break his wrists so I don't have to break his neck ). Fans of Chandler, Cain, and Goodis will feel right at home here, even if they don't usually read urban fantasy, and Kadrey's readers, naturally, will dive in headfirst.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)