Since this audiobook is a triptych of three previously released novellas It’s probably appropriate to feature three mini-plot reviews:
Corruption – Though the year is never made clear, this tale has a bleak, 1940’s “noir” feel that is evocative of the HBO series Carnivàle. Charles Grimes’s is a demon hunter. As a Demi-angel his wings never seemed to really work, and at 18 he’d had them surgically removed. Other parts of his biology are tougher to conceal. A non smoking, abstemious, vegan because of his biology, Charles is tasked with finding and eliminating a demon reported to be on display at a traveling carny in Kansas. What he finds is a group of hucksters profiting by pedaling the right to “punish” & debase perhaps the most appealing creature Charles has ever encountered. Can Charles really destroy a creature who is so alluring and has been through so much hell already? Though the most graphic of the BDSM is described at a remove, the tangential action alone is hot enough to make this a one-handed read.
Clay White – In this modern era San Francisco based tale, burly Clay has been fired from the bureau but still feels he must stop a killing spree in San Francisco. When officials from the Bureau refuse to help him catch the killer, he turns to the aid of another ex-Bureau operative for backup. But can a demi-angel and his demon partner aid a disgraced, and all too human, bureau operative, with the aid of a surprisingly supportive vampire, take on a Silicon Valley monster charming enough to make the Bureau uninterested in stopping him? It was very satisfying to catch up with the couple we met in book one and to meet yet another “agent” with a taste for a supernaturally sexy denizen of the underworld. Though the sexual content in this tale is slightly more subdued than in the first tale, it’s still… to slightly paraphrase Sam Spade “the stuff of wet dreams.”
Creature – in this early 50s era tale, Harry Low applied to join the Bureau but they weren’t interested. Months after their refusal, when given this second-chance “trial assignment,” Harry has to question the nature of just what (and who) are the real monsters. The “monster” in this tale is a captive, possibly innocent, though we and the “monster” have no knowledge of what came before. Initially repulsive and hideous, as the creature is treated humanely, it becomes more human. Though never afforded much decency or love himself, Harry seems incapable of treating the creature inhumanely and that compassion soon begins to affect them both. This is the longest and perhaps the sweetest of the tales and at spots it’s a tear-jerker. Consequently the graphic sex here is more limited than in either of the other two tales but the story will probably remain with me longer.
Oscar Wilde said ‘Each Man kills the thing he loves.” And the cynical, outcast heroes in these tales are all killers. What they have in common is their down at the heels competence, and their “little left to lose” outlooks. What makes these stories compelling is the empathy that the reader gains when parts of each tale are told from the “monster’s” point of view. While this format demands the reader consider… “just what makes a monster?” That ethical dilemma doesn’t get in the way of the hot sexual nature of these tales. If hot action,and the allure of the “forbidden” appeals to you; and if you’re open to reading of captivity, punishment, bondage, and pain mixed with pleasure, then this is a book for you. If you liked the movies Chinatown and the Maltese Falcon and if you’re also a sucker for underdogs & tales of redemption, so much the better.
Narrator Joel Leslie projects a gruff, resigned, world weary quality to his voice that works amazingly well with the tales and characters he’s presenting. His resignation alone, evokes much of the noir aspect of these tales, before the events even fully unfold. After hearing this, I’m even more curious to hear more of the wide variety of tales he’s lent voice to.