Betrayed by his friends who sent him to Hell, James Stark (don’t call him Jimmy) has spent the eleven years since fighting in the demon pits and acting as a hitman for Lucifer. Having been given a very special key in order to commit his kills, Stark can now pretty much walk through shadows to gain access anywhere, which is how he’s escaped Hell and returned to the world determined to take revenge on his former friends.
While talking a very good game about how much destruction he’ll rain down on his foes, Stark mostly seems to be good at being found by his enemies instead of finding them, spending most of the book getting his head bounced off various surfaces and destroying his already meagre wardrobe. Thanks to his years in Hell, however, he is also extremely hard to kill, which is useful as there’s more than just his former friends with the eyes on him. There’s also a special branch of the Feds led by a particularly zealous angel, and a bunch of Neo-Nazis who also happen to be connected to some pretty nasty fallen angels with a surprisingly similar look to jellyfish. Oh, and there’s also the small matter of the jellyfish angels wanting to bring about the end of the world.
A fun world to spend some time in, this was a very easy and entertaining read, and I’m happy to find that this is just the first in a series starring Stark. And now that we know the secret of his almost indestructibility, finding out what else he can do should be fun.