A hardboiled horror novel featuring two-fisted occult detective, Cal McDonald -- a gumshoe with no love for ghosts and ghouls alike.

I am a bit mixed on this one, overall I did enjoy it – I read it in two days – but it was a bit...rougher then I was expecting perhaps and I found some of the fights and action scenes distractingly violent and unbelievable. As in, I have a very hard time believing the main character survived any ONE of his battles never mind all of them combined and that kept pulling me out of the story.

The character of Cal McDonald himself was not particularly likable and that often keeps me from getting to invested in a character and their story, but in this case the reason for his unlikeability made so much sense and didn't make him and unreasonable bastard that I found myself caring about him and being invested in his actions.
I really liked Mo'Lock and I overall I found myself sympathizing way more with the ghouls and undead in the story than most of the humans, I would love to learn more about what their lives and world is like, though I find it unlikely to happen.
I enjoyed the overall mythos and structure of the world and it's magic which I found quite believable and fascinating and while this is not quite my typical type of story I am looking forward to reading the next one. ( )

After a rough night at a raucous Halloween party, lawsuit pending, Cal McDonald is awakened by a call from his one remaining police friend who desperately needs his help. While Blout doesn't really believe in all the weird nonsense Cal supposedly investigates, he knows when he's out of his element, and this one rings uncomfortably familiar to a previous case Cal worked on.

So, Cal is on the job. Along the way he has to avoid someone out to kill him and a real tool of a cop who also wouldn't mind seeing Cal dead. Hopefully he can figure this out before he becomes a victim of one or all of these problems.

In the great tradition of the hard-boiled detective story, Steve Niles gives us Cal McDonald, a detective of occult phenomena. He's seen this weird shit all his life, so why not get payed for it. ( )