Black Dog

This confusing hodgepodge of the damned—comprising hellhounds, shapeshifters, warlocks, vampires, demons, fallen angels, and two varieties of deadheads, among others—is an inauspicious start to the Hellhound Chronicles. The unnecessary clutter of characters gets in the way of the story and deflects the reader’s attention from the heroine, Ava, a hellhound. In both human and canine form, she collects souls of the damned for her employer, a particularly nasty reaper called Gary. Ava is a potentially sympathetic character, struggling to make sense of her previous life, chafing against the hellish abuse of her reaper, and dealing with the existential loneliness of the hell-bound. Had she not been forced to share the spotlight with a necromancing Russian mobster, an enfeebled fallen angel, and a 1,000-year-old demon, Ava’s strong presence might have been just enough to bring this book back from the dead. Even fans of Kittredge’s Iron Codex Trilogy will struggle with this one. (Oct.)