Spotlight & Giveaway: A Terrible Fall of Angels by Laurell K. Hamilton

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Laurell K. Hamilton’s new release: A Terrible Fall of Angels

Angels walk among us, but so do other unearthly beings in this brand new series by #1 New York Times Bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton.

Meet Detective Zaniel Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel speaker, he devoted his life to serving both the celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind.

Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college student—but is it just the evil that one human being can do to another, or is it something more?

When demonic possession is a possibility, even angelic protection can only go so far. The race is on to stop a killer before he finds his next victim, as Zaniel is forced to confront his own very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind.

The first in a new series from the author of the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from A Terrible Fall of Angels 

A woman screamed and then Nurse Prescott stumbled backward out of the room; she fell on her ass in the hallway, but it was like she couldn’t look away from whatever was in the room. She started backing down the hallway on her hands and feet like the crab walk they used to make us do in gym class. I was moving to help her before I’d even thought about it. I was a cop—we ran toward the sound of screams, not away from them.
I had my gun in one hand as I grabbed her arm to pull her to her feet and get her away from the room. I couldn’t see anything in the room but the bed and someone under the sheets. She screamed and batted at me with her hands. I pulled her across the floor by her arm as I said, “Police, I’m police, you’re safe.”
She stopped slapping at me and got to her feet with my hand steadying her. She shook her head too fast and too often. She gasped, “Ray, oh my God, Ray’s . . .”
“What’s wrong with Gonzales?” Paulson said from just behind us. He hadn’t stayed in the room where it was safe, point for him, but he was an ER doctor—they tended to run toward trouble, too.
Her breath came out as a sob as she said, “It tore him apart.”
“What tore him apart?” I asked.
“The patient, but a person couldn’t do that.” She finally looked away from the doorway to stare up at me. “He can’t be human.” Her voice lowered and I watched her try to get control of her expression, so she didn’t look shocked. She did her best, but her eyes held all the horror she was trying to keep off her face. I gave her points for trying and changed my gun to a two-handed grip as I moved toward the room and whatever was inside.
“Mark Cookson is a twenty-year-old college student, you can’t just shoot him,” Paulson said.
I stared at him. “What name did you say?” I wanted to make sure I’d heard correctly before I got too excited.
“Mark Cookson, do you know him?”
“Not personally, but he’s the person of interest in a rape homicide last night.”
“You just want me to let you shoot him,” Paulson said.
“I’m telling you the truth, and I can’t handcuff or Taser something that can tear a grown man to pieces. I’m out of options.”
“He’s not human,” Prescott said.
“He’s possessed; if we can get the demon out of him, he’ll get a chance to be an ordinary college sophomore. He’ll go back to his family and have a life unless we shoot his body full of holes that I can’t fix.”
“College sophomore is young for being a sorcerer,” I said.
“He’s not a sorcerer,” Paulson said.
I looked at him but kept the door in my peripheral, because I didn’t want any more surprises. “You don’t conjure a demon real enough to tear people apart unless you’re very well versed in the occult arts.”
“He didn’t conjure it, he is it,” Prescott said.
“You mean he shape-changed into another form?” I asked.
She shook her head, her fear fading because she was having to think and explain things to the cop who was asking stupid questions. “No, the demon was inside him. It crawled out of him like he was a Halloween costume.”
I was suddenly more hopeful.
“That is not funny, Detective.”
“Absolutely not,” I said.
“Then why are you smiling?” she asked.
“Sorry, but demons don’t crawl out of people like that except in movies. Physical possession can manipulate the human body but not to that degree.”
“I saw it!”
A deep bass voice called out, “Come see for yourself, Detective.”
I ignored the voice and turned back to the nurse in front of me. “What does the room look like? What does the body look like?”
She looked at me like I was crazy. “Blood, blood everywhere.” She said it angry; her eyes started getting that haunted look again, but that couldn’t be helped.

From A TERRIBLE FALL OF ANGELS published by arrangement with Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2021 by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Excerpt. ©Laurell K. Hamilton. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 

Giveaway: A paperback copy of A TERRIBLE FALL OF ANGELS (A Zaniel Havelock Novel Book 1) by Laurell K. Hamilton

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and post a comment to this Q: What did you think of the excerpt spotlighted here? Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Meet the Author:

Laurell K. Hamilton is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series and the Merry Gentry, Fey Detective series. A Terrible Fall of Angels, the first book in an exciting new series, features Detective Zaniel Havelock in a world where Angels and Demons walk among us.

With more than forty novels published, Laurell continues to create groundbreaking fiction inspired by her lifelong love of monster movies, ghost stories, mythology, folklore, and things that go bump in the night. Her love of the macabre, books in general, animals and nature led her to degrees in English and Biology. She is a non-practicing biologist, but uses her science background to add an extra level realism to her fiction.