Caitlin Kitteridge just released her latest Black London book, Devil’s Business. I like this series because it’s dark and gritty. The hero Jack Winter is a total ass. He’s not terribly likable and yet some how, you root for him. He is the underdog.

We start out the book with Jack getting attacked in a grocery store. The magic users in London (and elsewhere) are not happy with him. He nearly ended the world by releasing a creature called Nergal. It doesn’t sound deadly (rather sounds like a Smurf name I thought) but apparently it’s a death machine. He’s physically recovered from Pete nearly killing him.

So to get him out of London, a number of magic and anti-magic persons attack and/or threaten him. He’s on the outs with Pete (which happens a lot, let’s face it). What’s a man to do? Go to L.A. with Pete to look into some mysterious deaths. Not that it’s Jack’s first choice mind. Pete’s decided to go to L.A. to help out a former police bloke she met sometime ago (how, I’m entirely sure). Jack knows it’s a trap but he can’t convince Pete of it, so he goes with.

So on to L.A. where breathing the smog is like chain smoking cigarettes. They meet their contact, a slimy git named Mayhew. Mayhew is convinced that he has a serial killer on his hands. One that (WARNING) rips living babies out of their mothers. Once every ten years. No one on the force believes him but Pete agrees to help, possibly in part because she is preggers with Jack’s baby.

Except that it isn’t a serial killer, not really. It’s a demon. Or perhaps more correctly, a proto-demon. This baddie (by the name of Abbadon) is what was in Hell before the demons. And the demons don’t want him out and about causing havoc. Enter Belial, Jack’s old demon enemy, who bullies and tricks Jack and Pete into solving his case.

Since the book just came out, I don’t want to get too spoiler-y. Jack gets the crap kicked out of him. Repeatedly. We’re introduced to wraiths and princes of hell. Jack man’s up and Pete realizes that not all the bad shit that follows Jack Winter is his fault. I really enjoyed the book and was rather sad to see it end. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. A.