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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Book Review: Walking in the Midst of Fire (Remy Chandler #6) by Thomas E. Sniegoski

Walking In the Midst of Fire (Remy Chandler #6)
By: Thomas E. Sniegoski

Remy Chandler, angel private investigator, is trying his damnedest to lead a normal life in a world on the verge of supernatural change. He’s found a new love—a woman his dog, Marlowe, approves of—and his best human friend is reluctantly coming to grips with how...unusual...Remy’s actions can be. And he’s finally reached a kind of peace between his true angelic nature and the human persona he created for himself so very long ago.


But that peace can’t last—Heaven and the Legions of the Fallen still stand on the brink of war. Then one of Heaven’s greatest generals is murdered, and it falls to Remy to discover who—or what—might be responsible for the death, which could trigger the final conflict...a conflict in which Earth will most certainly be the beachhead.

The deeper he digs, the further he goes into a dark world of demonic assassins, secret brothels, and things that are unsettling even to a being who has lived since time began. But it is not in his nature—angelic or human—to stop until he has found the killer, no matter the personal price.


I will start out with this was a damned good story! There are warrior angels, snarky attitudes, epic smack downs, evil, suspense, and heart breaking realizations. Notice I didn’t say romance? The main character, Remy Chandler, does have a love life and it is important to his ability to hold onto his human façade, but this is an urban fantasy from a male POV with a male author. Now don’t go getting all offended. I am making a generalization based on my reading experiences. Female and male authors write UF differently, not better than the other… just different.

Here is a perfect description about who Remy Chandler is I found over at Innsmouth Free Press 
by contributor Paula R. Stiles. If you have read the books you can skip this paragraph.

The Remy Chandler series is about a seraph named “Remiel” who deserted Heaven after Lucifer and his rebel angels were thrown out. Remy now lives on earth and works quietly (or tries to) as a private eye in Boston. Life’s been tough these past few years, though, since his wife, Madeleine, died of old age and he’s found himself stuck with cases that always seem to end up with his averting the latest apocalypse of the day. It doesn’t help that Remy has what humans would term ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’ on top of PTSD.

I hadn't heard of this series before and was a little nervous about jumping in at book #6, but I couldn't resist after reading the blurb. The author did a great job of providing relevant background info so I didn't feel lost, but I had to pay attention to everything. This wasn't a quick read, but well worth the effort. Apparently book #5 was the ending of a main series arc and book #6 is the beginning of a new one. There are a ton of characters in Walking in the Midst of Fire, and many are from previous books. The author has created a complex and intriguing world based on the Christian ideas of Heaven and Hell and adding his own twist and other fantasy elements (AKA monsters!). This is my kind of urban fantasy.

This book has brought in a new foe from Remy’s past. The story is told from their POV with flashbacks from both characters to catch us up on how their paths crossed and why this new enemy called “The Forever Man” has surfaced. This isn't a normal vengeful bad guy. He is smart and patient and you will find yourself sympathetic to his plight.

One of my favorite parts, besides getting to hear Remy’s dog Marlowe’s thoughts, was the scenes with some of the secondary characters as they try to hide the body of a one of Heaven’s greatest generals without the angels or Lucifer’s army of fallen finding out. The dialog exchanges were hilarious in a dark humor way. The story was a little slow in the beginning and I didn’t feel much chemistry between Remy and the new love in his life, but I don’t know the story between them from the previous books. Once the action started I was hooked. The story took unexpected turns, suspense was heart stopping and the ending caught me off guard breaking my heart right along with Remy’s.

I look forward to checking out the first 5 books and recommend this series to action oriented urban fantasy lovers.

Quot-a-licious-ness:

“The heavy set sorcerer looked up. “Fancy seeing you here. To what do I owe the occasion?”
“I need a favor” Remy said.
“Let me guess” the rotund sorcerer started. “Something, something, something… the end of the world.” 

Remy smirked but with little humor.
“Yeah, a little something like that.”

“Taking down an angel of the Lord was all about surprise, and capitalizing on their sheer arrogance. As far as angels were concerned, nobody was as badass as they were.

Francis begged to differ.”
(this person might be a spoiler so if you want to see who said it you have to highlight the box)



4.5 “Forever” Sheep





Sharon Stogner

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review, this series is a favorite. Can't wait to read this one.

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  2. I can't believe I hadn't heard of this series till now! I have so much catching up to do :) thanks for stopping by.

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  3. New series for me as well. Will have to check it out. Love me some action ;)

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