Victory (Vicky) Vaughn is an exterminator by profession. She wears the protective suit, carries numerous weapons against infestation and is greeted with the same mixed relief and disgust as her mundane counterparts but her quarry is not the common cockroach or termite; it's Demons. Glitches, those demons who love infesting complicated machinery like computers and settling in to feed off the electricity are the most commonly encountered, but her training (still in process) means she can handle Demons with a lot more juice when need be.

Vicky vanquished a bad ass Hellion in the first book in the series (Deadtown) and really hoped her life was headed back to normal. At least normal by her definition. Between her zombie apprentice who is shooting for a big-time musical career, a relationship with a mostly-absent werewolf lawyer who has a political agenda (monster rights) that must come before any romance, and her ancient vampire roomie life is far from ideal.

The worst is yet to come when zombies of Vicky's acquaintance die, REALLY die in a mysterious and messy way. No clues left but for random articles of clothing and a big puddle of noxious black goo. It is time to call in her teacher, her Aunt in the old country and see if she has some mojo that would help.

Holzner has set her Deadtown series in an alternate Boston where zombies, werewolves, vampires and other creatures are second class citizens, shoved into their own little ghetto while the world figures out how to integrate their reality into the 'normal' world. Between long-lost (and dangerous relatives), a major threat to humanity, and a resurgence of demon activity beyond previously known scales Vicky has a lot to fight through. Holzner has her kicking ass with plenty of humor and thrills (and a touch or two of romance) to make HELLFORGED an even better read than Deadtown was, which makes me that much more eager to get my hands on the books yet to come. One of the most inventive urban fantasy series out there.

Book Summary

After Vicky banished her demon nemesis to the fiery depths of Hell, she thought life would return to normal. But considering she has a werewolf lawyer boyfriend, a zombie apprentice who’s angling to become a pop star, and an eccentric vampire roommate, what is normal, anyway?

Then the supposedly banished Hellion starts to trespass in Vicky’s dreams—just as several of Deadtown’s zombies are viciously attacked and become really dead. When Vicky realizes she’s the only connection between the victims, she suspects that the demon is somehow working through her dreams to become Deadtown’s living nightmare.

What she doesn’t know is that her old enemy brings with it a force more terrifying—and deadly—than anything she’s battled before.

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