Dr. Greta Van Helsing's demon transportation, Harlach, is late, which is something he has never been. As she waits at the pre-arranged bench, he is always at when she leaves her clinic she's not really worried, and she's not quite irritated yet. Just as she is working up to one or the other, Harlach appears out of nowhere and poofs them to her husband Varney's home, where it becomes clear that something is very wrong with Harlach. He reveals that someone shot him with something like a blow dart and he appears to be having an allergic reaction to it, knowing there's no way she can treat him on this plane she has him sent to Hell.

In the meantime, Harlach's angelic counterpart, Haliel, has had a similar experience but was able to shrug it off almost immediately. He reports the incident to his boss Gabriel and thinks nothing of it. Until he discovers that his colleague, his friend, Harlach, did not recover so quickly and easily. Both of them determine that something is attacking demons, and they have no idea why, especially after the Accords were signed. And while they aren't perfect, it was supposed to end or at least help end the ongoing animosity between Heaven and Hell.

However, as Greta is about to learn, that doesn't seem to be the case. The Accords are forcing Demons to work in Heaven and Angels to work in hell, and as both groups are allergic to the other, this is resulting in numerous Angels and Demons winding up sick. And Raphael and Dr. Faust, the heads of medicine in their perspective realms have had it up to here with the powers that be not listening. So, with the help of Greta and Fass, they hatch a scheme to at least try to find a way to keep their people from being sick. Unfortunately, they have no idea that an Angel has gone rougue and he's out to cleanse the Earth of everything he deems evil, and Greta is caught straight in his crossfire.

I love this series, so of course I loved this, but this was significantly better than I thought it was going to be. The entire Heaven portion of this book was really a simple conversation about understanding oneself. And I think at this point in time in the timeline of the world how understanding oneself leads to empathy for others and being able to simply stand up for yourself. There isn't a bad guy perse in this, there is simply a very confused man who has lived his entire life with an idea of what he was supposed to be and the rules he had to follow and when those rules felt wrong he did what many would do he lashed out and hurt those around him. Those he felt broke those rules. Now given everything that is going on in the world right now I could be reading much to deeply into this and even if I am I am not sure I care because I know a lot of humans on this planet right now could do with understanding that just because you've been taught to never question something doesn't mean you shouldn't. And for that message alone, this is a five-star read easily for me.

But all that aside, we have what this series has always been at its heart, a wonderful conversation about found family and a community that takes of each other. The introduction of the New York Nosferatu as mobsters was absolutely glorious, and I fell in love with Contini not because he was a stereotypical mobster, but because he wasn't. He was incredibly smart in all of his decisions and while sure yes fine he was probably a bit more violent than he needed to be I mean he is a vamp and he is a NYC mobster and to make him not violent would have been freaking weird.

Now, though I have a few questions, ones I will not pose here because it would be a spoiler but ones I *hope* means we will get another book because all of these new characters were absolutely amazing!


Definitely recommend if you've read the series and highly recommend it if you haven't, but you enjoyed Rivers of London because this is going to be right up your alley.

As always, thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eArc!