Anna Dressed in Blood (review)

After inheriting both his current vocation and his weapon of choice, a silver athame (a traditional dagger), from his father after dear old dad was taken out by one of his ghostly charges, Cas Lowood and his mom have spent the last three years moving from town to town sending murderous ghosts to their final resting place. Now Cas is in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to confront the spirit of a teen girl murdered over fifty years ago who is also apparently responsible for the dismemberment of a host of runaways. Cas witnesses her brutality up close when he sees her literally rip another boy in two, but for some reason she spares Cas, an act of mercy that leads him to believe she may in fact be cursed and sends him on a hunt to find a way to free her without destroying her in the process. Meanwhile, the flesh-eating ghost that killed his father appears to be taking his fight to the next generation, and Cas soon finds himself defenseless and clueless after his athame is stolen. The disturbing but terrifically plotted conclusion brings together the two story arcs with a startling amount of aplomb, and readers will be clamoring for the next installment of this wonderful blend of romance, satire, and horror. Cas' snarky, hard-boiled narration recalls classic noir, and Anna is no doubt a serious femme fatale, with the emphasis on "fatale." Readers shouldn't let the aptly placed pop-culture references and sparkling wit fool them into thinking this is a light romp, however, because the action gets plenty gross and plenty scary at times. This is horror at its best.