California Demon

By Julie Kenner
Published by the Penguin Group
June 2006

"My name is Kate Connor, and I'm a Demon Hunter."

Thus begins our love affair with Kate, her family, her friends, husband number one (who is dead), demons, and the damned. Yes, Kate hunts demons; she manages to fit it in between volunteering at the old-age home, raising two kids, and helping her husband with his political campaign. She works for Forza Scura, which is a secret arm of the Vatican (and which is probably more thoroughly explained in the first book of the demon-hunting soccer mom series, "Carpe Demon"). Although this is the second book in the series, it was quite easy to pick up the story.

In this episode, Kate discovers a mysterious demon book with blank pages, fights off demons who want their book returned, tries to control her boy-crazy daughter, and gets strange vibes off the new teacher at the high school. The fight scenes are exciting (who knew the damage you could do with a knife and some holy water?) and show the depths of Kenner's research into various methods of self-defence.

I picked up this book based on Kenner's Codebreaker Trilogy which I couldn't put down and foisted upon everyone I knew who could read, so I was pretty sure this was going to be a series I would like. If you like ass-kicking, demon-hunting, family-loving soccer moms, this is a series for you.