Book Review: Halo of the Damned
Reviewed by Ophelia Julien
Current cultural trends show a persisting, growing obsession with all things angel, demon, and darkly supernatural, all with a thread of romance thrown into the mix. Fans of this genre will not be disappointed with Dina Rae’s Halo of the Damned.
Set ironically in Wheaton, Illinois, a city with one of the highest number of churches per capita, the story opens by acquainting the reader with Andel, the head of an advertising agency that bears the very honest name Evil Empire, after his most recent kill. With just a few leading hints of what is behind this murder, Rae continues with the introduction of heroines Joanna Easterhouse and her sister, Kim. Kim also has a young daughter, Maria, who very early into the story reveals not only her apparent psychic abilities but her importance in the coming maelstrom.
And there is indeed a storm in the making, spun into high gear when Joanna takes a job at the Evil Empire Agency and becomes inadvertently enmeshed in the otherworld intrigue that is the culture of a business run by a fallen angel. The action of this story begins in Wheaton, wanders north of Illinois to Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, and zooms across the ocean to Florence, Italy before the final resolution back in Wheaton.
Amazingly enough, with all of the rituals, murders, and yes, blood-sucking and dismemberment, Rae manages to pull off an ending that is both sweet and believable. Ah, romance, one might say, but perhaps the bottom line is that love really can conquer all, even something as formidable as an army of demon worshippers. And the demon.
This book will intrigue readers of dark romance. How Andel is an integral part of the Easterhouse sisters’ past, what they discover about their recently deceased mother and the estranged family that still walks this planet, and how it all relates to an ancient religion born in the Middle East and devoted to angel worship is the stuff of nightmares. Or a devilishly good read.