Black Howl

Black Howl (Madeleine Black, 3) by Christina Henry, April 28, 2012. 288 pages. Published by Ace. Source: publisher.

Something is wrong with the souls of Chicago's dead. Ghosts are walking the streets, and Agent of Death Madeline Black's exasperating boss wants her to figure out why. And while work is bad enough, Maddy has a plethora of personal problems too. Now that Gabriel has been assigned as her thrall, their relationship has hit an impasse. At least her sleazy ex-fiance Nathaniel is out of the picture--or so she thinks...

First Sentence:

"Legs in the air, heels toward the ceiling."

While I did enjoy reading Black Howl, I did not love it. it was perhaps a little to similar to another series that I've read, as well, as the fact that I started reading mid-series.  
I usually try to avoid starting a series out of order, but Black Howl sounded interesting and like it would be an easy book to pick up mid series. For me, it was and was not an easy series to jump in on. On the one hand, I liked Ms Henry's writing, the world, and cast of characters because I thought she did a really good job of blending everything together; on the other hand, I was a bit thrown when it came to a few things mentioned that had happened in previous books. But on a whole Black Howl was definitely an interesting read.
Even though I enjoyed the plot of Black Howl, I felt that at times it was just a little too typical of the genre with a predictable outcome.
Madeleine, was equal parts cool and irritating. What I did like about Madeleine would have to be the she was one tough lady and that she refused to take flak from the guys in her world...even the ones that could destroy her. What I did not like about her would have to be that her personality was a bit grating. I liked her when she was fighting for something or someone because she didn't seem so self-absorbed, but when she was not fighting I was just, well, irritated with her and how she acted.

What I did like about Black Howl would have to be the writing. I thought Ms Henry did an excellent job when it came to the characters. I liked that they were flawed and a little quirky. Although, my favorite character would have to have been Beezle because he was the funniest thing ever. Who could honestly resist a gargoyle with a sweet tooth...not me. I also the cast of characters were in this book.

While not a bad book, Black Howl was just a little to similar to the Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow for my taste (by the way, I love that series). even with the slight similarities between the two series, I just had trouble getting into it because I did not start it from the beginning. Little too much in the way of back story and character history that just did not make all the much sense to me and thus made it hard to get into.

Even though Black Howl did not do it for me, I think that this is one that y'all should definitely give a shot...especially fans of the series since y'all will be more familiar with the characters and story.

Content (will contain spoilers; highlight to see):
Black Howl  was a fairly clean read, which was actually pretty surprising since it was an adult paranormal book and usually those can get a bit...out of hand in the content.
Language: There is some swearing in this book, but not too much more than what one finds in a typical YA read. So, not much to worry about in that department.
Violence: You can definitely expect a fair share of violence while reading this book, but again nothing too terribly bad (mainly just some slaying of demons and some rough-housing).
Sexual content: I was glad to see that it was really minimal in the book. There is one, maybe two scenes were the main character, Madeleine, sleeping with her new husband, as well, as one scene of kissing with some roaming hands.

Final Verdict: Black Howl

Black Howl earns 3.5 out of 5 pineapples.