The Everything Box

Los Angeles already has a reputation as a somewhat otherworldly town, but in the skilled hands of Kadrey (the Sandman Slim series), that description takes on new meaning. Coop, a burglar who specializes in overcoming magical traps and spells, thanks to his natural immunity to them, is just out of jail after a job gone sour. He’s recruited to steal a mysterious box for a well-paying client. Coop is far from the only person after the box; he and his crew must contend with a middle-class doomsday cult, agents from the Department of Peculiar Science, a temporally displaced homicidal stranger, and the angel who lost the box in the first place. Coop soon finds himself in the middle of a shadow war between heaven and Earth, with the biblical apocalypse at stake. Kadrey draws heavily on Gaiman and Pratchett’s classic novel, Good Omens, for inspiration, and in equal measure on Donald Westlake’s caper comedies. Kadrey’s plot doesn’t depend on magic; instead, magic is the broth bringing all manner of delicious ingredients together in this wonderful stew of a story. This unusual urban fantasy is a delight. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown. (Apr.)