dismal fare - Rated 
Lilith Saintcrow can't write for toffee, despite her splendidly gothic moniker. Her protagonist, Dante, is handy with a sword, and can beat any man she wants to a bloody pulp, but mostly she cusses her friends and makes feeble smart-ass to her enemies - neither generates much in the way of character. For such a hardened private dick type character, she also spends a lot of time fighting the urge to fall in love with hunky, broad chested male characters - and failing - only to see them die, cruelly, at the end of the novel just so she has an excuse to stay uncivil and drink some coffee. If you crossed terse misogynist PI Mike Hammer with the heroine of a Barbara Cartland novel you might end up with somehting close to Dante, the sword-waving necromancer of Dead Man Rising. But you'd also probably puke all over the resulting violent, sentimental, charmless nonsense.
4.5 stars! I want more! - Rated 
She is THE Dante "Danny" Valentine, world-class Necromance who retired at the top of her game after a hush-hush bounty hunt that nobody can dig up any information on except for the Nuevo Rio Mob War. (Previous book "Working For the Devil".) She was genetically altered by a Fallen demon, Japhrimel "Japh". Danny still has the mark upon her left shoulder, where Lucifer made Japh her familiar. No one would have ever believed it had they been informed that there was one thing that terrified Dante almost to the brink of death - Rigger Hall.
Until the age of thirteen, Dante had her caseworker, Lewis. When he died, Dante's life became a living nightmare. She was a collared girl pushed into the Hegemony Psi program. An orphan sent into Rigger Hall. Headmaster Mirovitch ruled Rigger Hall with an iron fist. No one knew he was a Feeder. He was well-camouflaged. The school was his private playground filled with disposable psions.
To keep her sanity, Danny has blocked out everything about that time. But now psychics all over are being brutally murdered. The school is the only link. Dante must face her past or there may not BE a future.
Things get even worse when Lucifer calls her. He is looking for Dante's lover - the one he has already killed. As strange as that sounds, Danny has no time or urge to contemplate the Devil's lies. She has no idea which fiend or friend to trust. Her time is running out, in more ways than one.
***** Almost as excellent as the first. Readers who pay close attention will (sometimes) see some clues as to what will happen in Dante's near future. Since Dante is secondarily gifted with precognition, I thought these flashes to be a brilliant addition to the story. BRAVA! Author Lilith Saintcrow fleshes out her main characters even more in this novel. Danny was made even more believable to me when I learned that she actually has some flaws. New characters are introduced as well. Danny makes some powerful new friends that may come in handy during the next episode. On that note, according to the teaser chapter at the end of this story, the next Dante Valentine novel will be released in July 2007 and titled "The Devil's Right Hand". Highly recommended reading! *****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
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