The Devil's Right Hand (Dante Valentine, Book 3): Lilith Saintcrow

Half-demon Dante Valentine's life as a bounty hunter and Necromance seems to have taken an easier turn after the suicidal mayhem dealing with her past in Dead Man Rising. She's reached her emotional limit and spent the last year or so licking her wounds, both mental and physical. With her Fallen demon lover Japhrimel risen from the dead and by her side again, it seems all is well...or at least as "well" as things get in Dante's world...

It's a good thing she took a year off to rest and recuperate because her former employer has come calling yet again. Lucifer has summoned both her and Japhrimel to a meeting (a summons Japhrimel has kept secret until the very last minute.) It seems Hell has gone to hell in a handbasket after two demons jumped ship in Working for the Devil...one of which is Japhrimel, his eldest son and former right-hand assassin. There is a lot of unrest in the nether regions, and Lucifer wants things put back in order before he loses power altogether.

The bargain? The Devil Himself needs a new right-hand man and he wants the lovely Dante's services...in exchange for letting her live, of course...and Japhrimel, too. Lucifer hasn't quite gotten over losing his favored child to Dante's love and he is a little, err, hellbent on a bit of revenge. The terms of agreement: seven years of her (and Japh's) life to hunt down four escaped demons, Lucifer's eternal protection from harm, a nifty bracelet, and a few other details that don't become clear until later in the novel. She's ready to tell Lucifer to go to...well, Hell...but at the last minute, Japh steps in to negotiate on her behalf. Why? At the moment it really doesn't matter because she is almost killed on the way back home by a rather nasty little imp and she realizes this won't be an ordinary bounty hunt...and demons have an interesting take on what "need to know" means...and they don't call Lucifer the Father of Lies for nothing because he has his own take on the definition of "truth"...

Dante has retained the annoying, lovable trait of being very slow on the uptake until it is almost too late. She's still the smart-mouthed kickass bitch I adore but in this installment, she is far more human than I had expected...even to the point of being whiny and needy as a toddler asking "why" every five seconds.

The two concurrent themes of trust, and lies, puts Dante to the real test. Her character is built around her failure to trust anyone -- or anything -- but when faced with a showdown of almost epic proportions, one wrong decision could cost her everything...especially Japhrimel. He has asked her repeatedly to trust him implicitly, but will she hold true? Even with the new insights into Japh's world and his place in it, the reader isn't exactly sure who's side he's really on until the very end. Lucifer? Hers? Are they destined lovers or...? And just what game is Lucifer playing? Ah, Lucifer. Well, what can you say. He's just as nasty as before and still blindingly handsome, seductive and deceitful.

I've learned to expect the unexpected from Lilith Saintcrow, and I am never disappointed. Well-crafted with a twisting, complex plot, this kept me on the edge of my seat until the stunning conclusion. With the interesting shift in characters' personalities, I never knew what new surprise waited around the corner.

Lilith Saintcrow has crafted yet another extraordinary, original addition to this gem of a series.

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Publisher: Orbit (September 1, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0316021423
ISBN-13: 978-0316021425
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