flyby recommendation

If you have a chance, pick up a copy of Requiem for the Devil by Jeri Smith-Ready. I found a copy on Fictionwise, but you can also get it on Amazon. The teaser goes like this:

Set in modern-day Washington, D.C., Requiem for the Devil depicts the end of the Devil's ten-billion-year career. For the first time in his existence, Lucifer falls in love, and this event threatens to transform his identity and perhaps even his destiny. Gianna O'Keefe is the woman who drags him out of his ancient despair and points him toward possible salvation. Yet Lucifer's path from evil is neither straight nor smooth. Pursuing love means betraying his fellow fallen angels, the loyal friends who once followed him to damnation. Divine and infernal forces seem to conspire against his and Gianna's union. Lucifer's empire crumbles around him as he dares to defy the natural order and question his fate.

( But that doesn't give you half the sense of just how hysterical, snappy, and sharp this story is. )

The first chapter is posted on the Fictionwise page, which is where this bit's from. And just to make sure I'm not giving the wrong impression, a) the dialogue isn't all people saying exactly the right snappy thing so much as even the "ugh, did I say that" lines are refreshingly straightforward in a characterization sense, and b) I've not finished it yet, so there's always a chance the author hits chapter five and starts to suck. I really hope not, because the first five pages had me hooked and the fifty have me in stitches. So we'll see...