Killing Pretty - SFBA Book Club

English language

Published June 4, 2015 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-237324-3

(1 review)

James Stark has met his share of demons and angels, on earth and beyond. Now, he's come face to face with the one entity few care to meet: Death. Someone has tried to kill Death--ripping the heart right out of him--or rather the body he's inhabiting. Death needs Sandman Slim's help: he believes anyone who can beat Lucifer and the old gods at their own game is the only one who can solve his murder. Stark follows a sordid trail deep into LA's subterranean world, from vampire-infested nightclubs to talent agencies specializing in mad ghosts, from Weimar Republic mystical societies to sleazy supernatural underground fight and sex clubs. Along the way he meets a mysterious girl--distinguished by a pair of graveyard eyes--as badass as Slim: she happens to be the only person who ever outwitted Death. But escaping her demise has had dire consequences for the rest of the world …

James Stark has met his share of demons and angels, on earth and beyond. Now, he's come face to face with the one entity few care to meet: Death. Someone has tried to kill Death--ripping the heart right out of him--or rather the body he's inhabiting. Death needs Sandman Slim's help: he believes anyone who can beat Lucifer and the old gods at their own game is the only one who can solve his murder. Stark follows a sordid trail deep into LA's subterranean world, from vampire-infested nightclubs to talent agencies specializing in mad ghosts, from Weimar Republic mystical societies to sleazy supernatural underground fight and sex clubs. Along the way he meets a mysterious girl--distinguished by a pair of graveyard eyes--as badass as Slim: she happens to be the only person who ever outwitted Death. But escaping her demise has had dire consequences for the rest of the world . . . and a few others.

3 editions

David Hughes reviewed Killing Pretty by Richard Kadrey

Starting to have run its course

4 stars

To me the Sandman Slim was slow to get going, but Kadrey effectively ramped up the existential/ontological threats. They reached their peak in the previous instalment and here we have a ...reduced Sandman Slim who's no more than a glorified private eye. However, his first case is to find who's responsible for murdering Death, so there's still a while to go before his cases involve missing heirs and blackmailed businessmen Kadrey still pulls it off, largely because of the supporting cast, but one gets the sense that the series is running out of steam. Miles better than Harry Dresden, but.

Subjects

Fiction, fantasy, urban
Los angeles (calif.), fiction