Review of The Wrong Goodbye by Chris F. Holm

Please welcome new reviewer Dan VK!

The Wrong Goodbye (The Collector Book Two)
By Chris F. Holm; Read by Brian Vander Ark
Publisher: Angry Robot on Brilliance Audio
Published: 2012
Length: 10 hours [UNABRIDGED]
ISBN: 978-1-4692-0892-3

Themes: / fantasy / reaper / souls / apocalypse /

Publisher Summary: Meet Sam Thornton, collecter of souls. The souls of the damned, to be precise. Because of his efforts to avert the Apocalypse, Sam Thornton has been given a second chance: provided he can stick to the straight-and-narrow.

Which sounds all well and good, but when the soul that Sam is sent to collect goes missing, he finds himself on a path leading straight to Hell.

What a wild ride Chris F. Holm’s The Collector series has been so far. The initial installment Dead Harvest introduced Collector Sam Thornton cursed in the afterlife to roam the earth via hopping from one body to the next collecting the souls of the damned. The Wrong Goodbye continues the story at a fast pace with minimal emphasis on backstory. Once again Sam finds himself walking a very thin line in the war between good and evil with characters new, old, and in some cases very ancient.

The body hopping aspect in this series often leads to some very intriguing plot twists as the story speeds ahead and will suddenly veer off in a surprising new direction. You literally do not know where Sam Thornton is going to end up next. Added to the mix in the latest installment is the development of other collector characters that share a history with Sam, an apparent no-no in the world of collectors creating for a complex web of interaction.

Chris F Holm expands on the rich universe of demon mythology of the first book, incorporating Biblical era stories and characters into his fiction in a very entertaining way. Each story presents a scenario with Sam Thornton thrust reluctantly into the role of averting an apocalypse due to a soul collection gone very wrong. The narration of Brian Vander Ark of the band Verve Pipe perfectly matches the first-person hardboiled tone of these stories. I especially like what he brings to each of the different characters giving each demon, angel, etc. their own distinctive voices. I am hoping Brian will stay on to wrap up the series with the next installment The Big Reap.

Review by Dan VK