The front cover of this book says it’s a Dark Hunter novel. For those that have followed the Dark Hunter like I have, I’m warning you right now, this isn’t a Dark Hunter book. However, for those that have been waiting for a much more comprehensive background on Acheron and Artemis, this delivers, although Acheron is – as always – a secondary character.

Normally this would be where I’d give a brief history of the Dark Hunters, but it doesn’t really apply here. Instead, I’ll just say that if you haven’t read at least one Dark Hunter book by now, don’t bother with this one – nothing will make sense. In this book, Kenyon introduces a whole new pantheon of gods and demons that make the Daimons (demons) the Dark Hunters fight look like girl scouts. The Gallu demons will kill anyone or anything, and if you’re lucky, they’ll just kill you, not turn you into one of them. One bite from them and the person is history, with an insatiable appetite for flesh, blood, torture, destruction, and mayhem. The ancient Sumerians created them to fight the Atlantean demons, the Charontes. The Sumerian’s pride was also their downfall as the Gallu turned on them immediately and the torturing and eating began. Three powerful Sumerian gods – Ishtar, Zakar, and Nana – were able to capture and imprison them, but over the eons, their jail has weakened…

The Sumerian god Nana, now known as Sin, was saved from death by Acheron, the powerful leader of the Dark Hunters. Sin’s godhood was stripped by the Greek Goddess Artemis, whom he approached as a friend, only to have her turn on him. Acheron turned Sin into a “nominal” Dark Hunter, but Sin doesn’t have any of the Dark Hunter issues, such as no soul or only being able to hunt at night, and Sin doesn’t even hunt the Greek Daimons; he hunts the Gallu demons. Although he lost his power, he still is a formidable opponent, but allows no one near him.

Only the Sumerian gods can stop the demons they created. Ishtar is dead, Zakar hasn’t been seen in centuries, and the Gallu are gearing up for the Dimme, (basically the apocalypse). Who will be able to stop them?

Since Sin’s behavior has changed, Artemis is getting worried up there in Olympus and she believes he is coming after her to extract his revenge. She sends her closest handmaiden and daughter Katra to kill him. Even though Katra is extremely gifted herself, Sin manages to kidnap her and mistakenly believes she is Artemis. After they sort out that misunderstanding, Kat actually listens to Sin when he tells her of the Gallu. Sin however, won’t trust Kat at all, because of Artemis.

I enjoyed Kat and Sin. Sin is a typical alpha male, but Kat holds her own with his cranky attitude. Sin’s anger is justified however, and his past wasn’t fun and games. Kat has dealt with attitude all her life from her mother and other family and friends, so she handles Sin well. I enjoyed her connections with various characters glimpsed in previous books. Each book has provided more hints about Acheron and his past, and this book reveals much more, which was fantastic!

However, I can’t help but feel that with this new set of bad guys, the author is perhaps frantically looking for new storylines because the well is drying up, so to speak. The Gallu just felt too over the top to me. The Daimons are bad enough on their own, why create a whole new set of unbeatable bad guys? The storyline felt extremely forced in that area and I sense a shift away from the Dark Hunter heroes in future books.

As far as the hardcover price is concerned, I did feel that Devil May Cry was worth it more than Kenyon’s hardcover debut book was, although I’m still not sure this book is worth $19.95. Now if it was only Acheron’s story? Heck yes, I’d pay that without hesitating. For this book, though, I would at least think it over before buying it outright.