All Souls Lost - Kestrels Nest: BookWyrm Edition

English language

Published Oct. 30, 2023 by Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc..

ISBN:: 978-1-62567-618-4

(1 review)

Say hello to Mike Lucifer, Spiritual Consultant. He’s back in town to take care of business. Unfortunately, when business is good, things must be very, very bad.

After two years trying to run away from his past, Mike Lucifer’s back in his office less than ten minutes when a persistent young woman shows up asking for her boyfriend’s been possessed by a demon.

That’s exactly the kind of mess that drove him from his hometown of Boston to a sunny beach—and the bottom of a bottle—in the first place. But there are some problems that even booze can’t drown, and while Lucifer may be no hero, his dwindling bank account provides a thousand reasons to take the case.

No sooner is he back in the game then the complications and corpses start to add up. The boyfriend’s not possessed—he’s dead. The tech company where he worked is looking shadier by …

Say hello to Mike Lucifer, Spiritual Consultant. He’s back in town to take care of business. Unfortunately, when business is good, things must be very, very bad.

After two years trying to run away from his past, Mike Lucifer’s back in his office less than ten minutes when a persistent young woman shows up asking for her boyfriend’s been possessed by a demon.

That’s exactly the kind of mess that drove him from his hometown of Boston to a sunny beach—and the bottom of a bottle—in the first place. But there are some problems that even booze can’t drown, and while Lucifer may be no hero, his dwindling bank account provides a thousand reasons to take the case.

No sooner is he back in the game then the complications and corpses start to add up. The boyfriend’s not possessed—he’s dead. The tech company where he worked is looking shadier by the second. And Lucifer’s client definitely knows more than she should…about everything. The deeper Lucifer digs, the more he wonders if whatever sinister entity lurks behind this case wants him to be the last to die…

1 edition

Eric Wagoner 📚 reviewed All Souls Lost by Dan Moren

A Fun Intersection of Detective Noir, Urban Fantasy, and Big Tech

5 stars

My previous exposure to urban fantasy has been mostly limited to Christopher Moore's "Death Merchant Chronicles" series, and this new offering from Dan Moren reminds me greatly of Moore's books. Luckily for Dan, the Death Merchant Chronicles are some of my favorite books ever.

The humor is more subdued than Moore's books, more like Dirk Gently than Hitchhiker's Guide on the Douglas Adams humor scale. The setting was compelling, feeling like the world we live in with additional layers just out of reach of most of us. The protagonist seems like someone I'd like to know and hang out with (carefully). The surrounding cast of characters was three dimensional, and the antagonists had believable motivations.

I saw the twist coming about two hundred pages before it hit and ... I did not care. It was still delightful, maybe even moreso because I'm immersed in the big tech world the plot …

My previous exposure to urban fantasy has been mostly limited to Christopher Moore's "Death Merchant Chronicles" series, and this new offering from Dan Moren reminds me greatly of Moore's books. Luckily for Dan, the Death Merchant Chronicles are some of my favorite books ever.

The humor is more subdued than Moore's books, more like Dirk Gently than Hitchhiker's Guide on the Douglas Adams humor scale. The setting was compelling, feeling like the world we live in with additional layers just out of reach of most of us. The protagonist seems like someone I'd like to know and hang out with (carefully). The surrounding cast of characters was three dimensional, and the antagonists had believable motivations.

I saw the twist coming about two hundred pages before it hit and ... I did not care. It was still delightful, maybe even moreso because I'm immersed in the big tech world the plot intersects. The resolution was equally delightful, and I found my reading sessions grew longer as I approached the end of the book.

Moren wrote some of my favorite books I read last year -- I tore through his series of sci-fi spy thrillers -- and I enjoyed his style applied to a new genre. I hope there's more in this series!