Book Review: Dancing on the Head of a Pin

Title: Dancing on the Head of a Pin: A Remy Chandler Novel
Author: Thomas E. Sniegoski
Rating: ***
Tags: paranormal, thriller, fiction, series, angels, private eyes

This second book in the Remy Chandler series has just come out, and I was lucky enough to read it right after reading the first in the series.

Remy, who was and still can be the angel Remiel, is a private eye in Boston. A client hires him to search for several priceless weapons that have been stolen. It becomes clear quickly that the weapons and the thieves are supernatural, not of the nice kind, and things are going to get pretty bad.

What I perceived in the first book to be weaknesses of the mythology here also translate into an inconsistent character. Sniegoski treats Remy the "human" and Remiel the angel as two entirely separate characters in one body, and Remy is by far the more honorable and compassionate of the two. It is the angel that hankers for war and blood, which doesn't make a lot of sense because it was the war in Heaven in which Remiel killed many of his brothers that caused him to leave Heaven and try to live as a human. If his angle nature was so bloodthirsty he wouldn't have gotten so soul-sick over the war.

Interesting enough to read through, and there are characters I like, including Remy (not Remiel) and Marlowe the dog, but I'm not sure I'll read any more in this series.

Publication Roc Trade (2009), Paperback, 304 pages
Publication date 2009
ISBN 0451462513 / 9780451462510