I read the first book of the series 5 years ago, and over the last 5 years my world view has changed a lot. I've become more aware of a lot of things, including the way female characters are portrayed in literature by male authors. I'm mentioning this because I honestly dont remember whether the first book had as much violence against women. This was written in the 90s so it does not surprise me. But it does ruin the experience for me personally. The mythos and world building I loved in the first book continues but for me it's tainted by the extreme violence to female characters throughout the book. ( )

Enjoying a nice revisit with the Shadow Saga, with evil Catholics and saintly Vampires!

Seriously, I'm both thrilled and a little disappointed in this second book. Mostly thrilled. I mean, I can do without some of the slowish bits, but with all the big explosions and military might chopping up the PoV changes, taking a trip to hell to save Peter, coming back to a massive blow-out with major demons walking the Earth, I really have NOTHING to complain about.

I think my main problem, on this re-read, is not the first two books at all, but the memory of the third. I hate losing my favorite characters. Peter is great and even though we barely see him in this one, he takes all the other stages in fine form. It isn't HIM that I love the most, though. I love almost all of them.

Read into that as you will.

But as for this book? I LOVE the twists and turns it takes. There are some really funny and awesome ideas floating around in here and the short-sharp-idea-jabs are the BEST.

I'm glad I did a re-read. It's just plain FUN. :)

Not perfect, mind you, but it is definitely courageous and genre-busting and willing to go all out. That's something I can appreciate. Big time. :)

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Crime fiction narrated by a dog - and it works surprisingly well. Chet and Bernie (his human) are a team of private investigators. In this book, they track down a missing dog, and discover what happened to two missing women. Chet's narration is peppered with humorous misunderstandings of words or cliches, and dog-like distractions such as sticks, balls to chase, or random tempting snacks. Cleverly written, particularly when Chet and Bernie are separated, which means that the reader learns more than Bernie knows... so while the solving of the crime itself is easy to do, it was interesting to see how Bernie managed to solve the puzzle and find the true perpetrators of the crime. Recommended. ( )

Excellent continuation of the Shadow Saga (Of Saints and Shadows is book 1). Humans now know that vampires exist. And, thanks to the church trying to kill them on live tv, humans are somewhat sympathetic to their existence. Now, organizations have formed to promote good relations between the two races. But, not everyone wants that. Hannibal liked hunting and killing humans; so, he secretly begins building an army.

This plot kind've puts one in mind of Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants in the X-Men universe. It works very well here, creating an exciting story with lots of action as "good vampires" go head to head with the "bad." A very original take on vampires and very well written. Highly recommended! ( )