We Leave Together

McDermott’s third novel set in Dogsland (after When We Were Executioners) brings closure to the saga of the deceased Jona Lord Joni, whose memory-filled skull yields the narrative. Jona, a half-demon noble dispossessed of his family’s lands, is working as a King’s Man, trying to stanch the flow of addictive demon weed into the city, when he is approached by its main distributor, the Lady Sabachthani, with her scheme to take over Dogsland. Jona’s collusion is complicated by his half-demon lover, Rachel Nolander, who is trying to break her brother’s addiction to the weed. Although McDermott provides backstories for his characters that were only vaguely sketched in the previous novels, this installment is still patchy in spots, and leaves loose ends flailing. Regardless, readers will still find Dogsland a grittily imagined fantasy world, with a personality as vivid as any of its residents. (June)