Happy Hour in Hell

The second installment of Williams’s urban fantasy series (after The Dirty Streets of Heaven) starts off, like the previous installment, with wisecracking Bobby Dollar (aka the Angel Doloriel) proving he “never lets facts or good sense stand in the way of a suicidally foolish course of action.” Bobby, on “indefinite leave” from work as a soul-saving angel, is pining away for his demon girlfriend, Caz, Countess of the Cold Hands, who’s now in Hell with her owner, Eligor the Horseman. Bobby is also being hunted by a twice-dead psycho-killer demon, Smyler, demanding the magical golden feather that Bobby stole from none other than Eligor. Wearing a new demon body and persona, Bobby embarks on a chaotic cloak-and-dagger mission through Hell’s many levels of infernal protocols and punishments to rescue Caz. Fans are assured of dark humor, even darker adventures, and quirky characters in this solid read, though the too-long stay in Hell sometimes slows the storyline. Agent: Matt Bialer, Sanford J. Greenberger Associates. (Sept.)