The Dirty Streets of Heaven

A noir urban fantasy tale about an angel working as a defence lawyer for the souls of the dead, this is a pretty original concept. Not entirely without parallels, of course (what is?), but even when one thinks of Dogma, In Nomine, or Dead Like Me, none of those are really quite the same thing. Of course, gritty urban fantasy is hardly new, but this is an original touch on it none the less (at least to me).

It reads quite a lot like a private detective novel. Technically, the hero isn't one, but he might as well be given the sorts of situations he gets into, and the number of times he gets beaten up. It's set in a parallel version of San Francisco, and I'm told there's lots of references to that city that are great if you actually know. Never having even been on the same continent, I have to confess they're lost on me... but I still got a feel for the place all the same.

There's a great cast of supporting characters, including a cursed were-pig and an entity from Japanese folklore. The plot is suitably complicated, without overdoing it, and involves a number of sinister characters (many of them demons, although some of the angels are a bit shifty too), an appropriately deadly femme fatale, and an interesting set-up.

Given the premise that even Heaven may be corrupt, and that God is very clearly an absentee landlord, it's possibly not an ideal book for those with strong religious convictions (depending on what those convictions are, admittedly), but as a piece of atmospheric gritty urban fantasy with a twist, it's good stuff.