In Masters of Death, a wildly inventive contemporary fantasy from Olivie Blake (One for My Enemy), an eclectic, morally questionable cast of paranormal beings joins forces to free Death personified. The story opens as aswang realtor Viola--a shapeshifting cat-vampire from Filipino folklore--attempts to sell a house haunted by its recently deceased owner. Soon she seeks out Fox, the godson of Death, a charlatan medium and "mortal with an abandonment complex," given that gambling addict Death has disappeared, caught up in his own game by a demon king's world-ending machinations.
This is the kind of humor Blake employs to great effect: humanizing her ridiculous characters with the kind of flaws they believe themselves immune from as immortal beings. Isis summarizes this ragtag crew: Louisa's a siren; Sly is fae; Brandt's "a random thief we don't really know anything about yet, short of his romantic falling-out with Fox"; Mayra's "a guardian angel who's almost certainly hiding something"; Cal is a "reaper who's very clearly obsessed with Mayra"; and Tom is a "poltergeist who won't be quiet." They'll have to work together to win the game and avert disaster, but how can they, with an enemy who so expertly exploits their weaknesses? Funny, romantic and unexpectedly poignant, Masters of Death is perfect for fans of Terry Pratchett's Mort, Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job, and TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea. Anyone who craved an Aziraphale-Crowley romance in Good Omens should immediately pick this up. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer