Review – Dancing on the Head of a Pin (Remy Chandler, Book 2) by Thomas E. Sniegoski (4/5 stars)

This book is the second book in the Remy Chandler series by Sniegoski.  Last I heard four books were sold in this series.  The third one “Where Angels Fear to Tread” was released Mar. 2 2010.  I liked this book more than the first one; it was more witty and the action scenes seemed tighter and more well written.

In this book Remy gets a call from an antique collector whose antique weapons have gone missing.  Remy struggles to work on the case because he has been struggling with keeping his humanity (and repressing his angelic side) since his wife Maddie passed away.  When Remy goes to meet with the antique dealer he finds that the weapons missing were extremely powerful weapons called the Pitiless.  At the same time Remy and Francis have found that someone is selling angel parts on the black market.  Now Remy needs to find out how these weapons are tied in with the Nomad angels and how all of this ties in with the increased activity in Hell.  Of course, if he can’t figure it out the world as we know it will end.

I liked this book better than the first book.  Remy has a bit more wit to him and is not so depressed.  Sniegoski does an excellent job of keeping the plotline sleek and fast-moving.  There isn’t a whole lot extra in this book, all of it deals with the main plotline directly which I liked.  I thought Sniegoski also did a better job with the fight scenes; they seemed more crisp than the first book and grabbed my attention more.  If you are looking for a lot of romance in your story, then you should look elsewhere.  Other than pining after his deceased wife, there really isn’t any romance here…which suited the story just fine.

I love that Sniegoski deals with the angel and demons in a practical way and doesn’t get too bogged down in religion.  He also did a good job in bringing mythos from a variety of places into play in this book.

All the side characters are well developed.  This book did a good job of wrapping up the main storyline it followed, but left another storyline open to continue into the next book.  Reading the first book would be helpful but not absolutely necessary to enjoy this book.

Overall this was a great read.  It is a quick, engaging, and fast-paced story that really grabs the reader.  I think it was an improvement over the first book, and I am looking forward to reading the third book.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
– Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge