A free-spirited demon must prove his work ethic or face termination in The Witchstone, a hilarious, horror-laced fantasy road trip novel by Henry H. Neff (Impyrium).
Laszlo, an 800-year-old demon and hustler, pops into his Midtown Manhattan office one day to find an Overseer, a high-ranking demon, liquidating his coworkers--literally. Laszlo manages the Drakeford Curse, which painfully transforms adult members of the eponymous family into dangerous, hideous monsters. The Overseer angrily informs Laszlo that the Drakefords "have spent the last century in a state of moderate misery and negligible despair" and gives Laszlo six days to improve his performance or the Overseer will return him to the Primordial Ooze.
Enter the Drakeford siblings, 19-year-old Maggie and her 11-year-old brother, George, whom Maggie calls Lump. The curse has already transformed Maggie's father, leaving her to take his place as the traditional sin-eater for superstitious locals. When smooth-talking Laszlo shows up and claims that Hell wants the curse ended, Maggie doesn't trust him, but early traces of her own transformation motivate her to take a chance. She and stowaway Lump join Laszlo on a journey that takes them into a kobold lair in Central Park, through the mountains and cathedrals of Europe, and into the middle of a demonic conspiracy thousands of years in the making.
Neff seamlessly blends corporate satire with dark fantasy in this wisecracking race across the globe. His hidden demonic world is richly drawn and filled with a host of supernatural creatures. Tough yet vulnerable Maggie and secretly soft Laszlo will capture fantasy readers' hearts and funny bones. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads