The Barrow Will Send What it May

February 15, 2018
The sequel to Killjoy's The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (2017) finds Danielle Cain and her anarcho-punk gang of demon-hunting novice mages on the lam, in the cross hairs, and glistening with undead magic.The second installment of the Danielle Cain series opens where the first left off. Danielle (not Dani) and her newfound friends Doomsday, Thursday, Vulture, and Brynn are on the run from both the regular police and the magic police as the result of their gory defeat of a vengeful protector spirit in the form of a blood-red, three-antlered deer. Unsure of what to do next, the group forms a loose plan: to seek out shelter, arcane knowledge and instruction, and new demons to combat. After an accident wrecks their ride, the group hitchhikes into the small town of Pendleton, Montana, and right into the web of a deranged necromancer whose spells carry with them the threat of apocalypse. With the help of new friends Vasilis and Heather--fellow anarchists and occultists who have taken over the town library to save it from dissolution--Danielle's group sets themselves the task of ferreting out the necromancer and solving the mysterious, and perhaps not coincidental, disappearance of the librarians' friends Damien, Isola, and Loki. Filled with riotous bonhomie, a determined sense of social justice, and the deeply enjoyable banter of characters who live on the fringes of fringe society, the novel patters along quickly as it wiggles through the convolutions of its plot. Yet, as entertaining as reanimated anarchists, zombie hands, and magic feds are to read about, the author's real interest lies in the deepening friendships and developing romances that are taking place within her core group of characters. In this way, she sets herself up for a third installation in which both characters and readers genuinely want to know what happens next.An entertaining book filled with memorable characters who tread glibly through the realms of both the living and the dead.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 12, 2018
This punk anarchist postapocalyptic fantasy novella, sequel to The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, sees series heroine Danielle Cain and her crew on the run. Stopping in a secluded town turned anarchist stronghold, Danielle and her cohort are welcomed by several of the town’s undead residents and soon enmeshed in a war between the living and the dead. They confront a powerful necromancer who summons an otherworldly entity, wielding enough power to break down the barriers between this world and the next. Writing with superb energy, Killjoy captures both the human drama and the supernatural suspense in the breakdown of the known world. Killjoy creates a multifaceted magic without burdening the text with needless exposition, intertwining the human and magical elements in a tale that captures the depth of humankind’s endless grappling with the everpresent specter of death. Fans will be very entertained and look forward to the next installment in the series. Agent: Connor Goldsmith, Fuse Literary.

March 15, 2018
Killjoy's (The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, 2017) exciting and surprisingly hilarious second Danielle Cain book follows a diverse group of anarchists as they hitchhike to a small town haunted by an evil magician and the living dead corpses he reanimated. One of these living corpses drops the group off at the local occult library, where they stay for barely a night before joining the librarians' investigation into how and why two dead locals have suddenly reappeared on the edge of town. Their research is a little more dangerous than they expected, though, and one of the librarians ends up severely injured by a magic spell protecting the magician's basement full of secrets. Her eventual death catapults the hodgepodge group into a full-blown standoff, pitting heavily armed locals against people they believe to be unwelcome outsiders. Without an active police department, it's up to the unnamed group to prove that a magic-wielding murderer is manipulating the town before they become his next victims. Readers will find themselves bingeing on this highly addictive, dark fantasy thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)