The Nimble Man (Book One of The Menagerie) by Christopher Golden & Thomas E. Sniegoski (2004)
The Menagerie is a four-book dark fantasy series about a group of supernatural and otherworldly creatures who have banded together to save the world (and perhaps other) from a dire supernatural threat. Operating out of a brownstone in Boston, they are led by the mysterious Dr. Doyle, the second most powerful magician/mage in the world. I'm not giving much away when I reveal (as does the book early on) that Dr. Doyle is actually the author Arthur Conan Doyle, whose studies in spiritualism led him to his outstanding expertise, just as his investigation of the Cottingley Fairies led him to breach the dimensions to the land of the fey, where he became the consort of a royal warrior fairy. That may be a lot for some readers to swallow but the story moves along at a good pace in spite of this.
Doyle has been getting hints of something evil trying to locate Lorenzo Sanguedulce (a.k.a. Sweetblood), the centuries-old most powerful mage of all time. Sanguedulce vanished from the world decades ago with none knowing whether he still exists. Yet some force is convinced he still exists and is determined to find him, using an army of mindless, killer Corca-Duibhne (the Night People) to aid in the quest. Whoever is behind this playing for keeps: mosquitoes blacken the sky and drain the blood from its victims, as does an army of crows, frogs rain down on the city, the clouds spout blood, many of the plagues of the Old Testament begin to manifest -- all designed to draw Doyle's attention for the quest for the ancient mage. Demons appear bent on destruction. The dead rise from their graves and shamble toward Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, stopping on the way to indulge their taste in human flesh.
Aiding Doyle in stopping the carnage are Squire, a wisecracking hobgoblin who serves a both
Doyle's Driver and armorer; Clay, a millennia-old shapeshifter and the original model for the Golem; Eve, a seductive vampire with a haut couture fashion sense, a creature old as time and trying to repent her evil deeds of the past; Dr. Leonard Graves, the ghost of a scientific adventurer of the Doc Savage type, who refuses to cross over to the other side until he discovers his murderer; Ceridwen, the Fey princess who once loved Doyle and now wants nothing to do with him, a powerful sorceress i her own right and one allied with the elementals; and Danny Ferrick, a fifteen-year-old changeling who is just beginning to morph into his natural demon body.
The big bad here is Morrigan, Ceridwen's aunt, who apparently aims to take over the our world (or, the Blight, as the Fey call it). She has already destroyed most of Fairyland before turning her attenti0on to Earth. All she needs is to destroy the world is to tap into Sanguedulce's magical powers. But (surprise!), she is not the big bad -- although she is pretty bad. The big bad is The Nimble Man, a fallen angel without a name, who had been cast out from Heaven but refused entrance to Hell and now resides trapped in a purgatory that he has never been able to escape, but now with Morrigan's powers and the stolen magic from Sanguedulce, he may be able to walk the Earth and bring torment to all mankind. Nothing will be able to stop him.
Along the way, Doyle and his crew must confront various monsters from legend, from boggarts to fire drakes. The authors throw in a few human monsters that have nothing to do with the plot and basically serve as placeholders while amplifying the tensions of the Menagerie.
What we end up with is a hodgepodge of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink monsters throwing near-impossible roadblocks at our heroes. It's probably too much of a plot boiler but the writing zips along so the reader seldom notices the novel's flaws and contradictions. (God is a character, but he is well off-stage, and apparently is just one of many deities.) Danger is faced, relationships are strained, loyalties may be tested, but because this is a four-book series, {SPOILER ALERT} our heroes prevail. But, because this is a four-book series, we learn at the end that there is an even bigger, badder menace out there that our heroes will soon have to deal with.
The book kept me entertained and kept me reading; i can't aske for much more than that.
Christopher Golden is one of the busiest writers of fantasy and horror we have. Known for his seven-volume Shadow Saga, he has also written the best-selling Ben Walker series, the Hidden Cities series (with Tim Lebbon), The Veil series, the Ghosts of Albion series (with Amber /Benson), the Body of Evidence series (some co-authored with Rick Hautala), the Outcast series (with Sniegoski), the Prowlers series, the Hollow series (with Ford Lytle Gilmore), the Bloodstained Oz series (with James A. Moore), the Secret Journeys of Jack London series (with Lebbon), Joe Golem (with Mike Mignola), Balltilmore (with Mignola), the Cemetery Girl series (graphic novels, with Charlaine Harris), and the Waking Series (as by "Thomas Randall"), as well as at least two dozen standalones. His media tie-in work includes Battlestar Galactica (with Richard Hatch), the Aliens and Predator universe, the Marvel comics universe (including Daredevil, the X-Men, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, and Hulk), the Buffyverse (both fiction and nonfiction), The Justice League of America, Gen13, King Kong, Hellboy, and Star Wars. Golden has also written a number of nonfiction books and edited at least a dozen anthologies.
In addition to his work with Golden, Sniegoski is known for his novels about Remy Chandler, an angel P.I., and for The Fallen series about ab 18-year-old who discovers he is the liaison between angels and humanity, and between the powers of good and evil. Sniegnoski has also written widely in the comic boom field, including books in the Buffyverse and in the BONE series.
One nifty thing about The Nimble Man was the various Easter eggs and in-jokes, many of which I'm sure I did not get. But I was happy to see my late friend Kate Mattes, of Kate's Mystery Books/Murder Under Cover, immortalized as Katie Matthews, owner of a Cambridge bookstore who lived on the floor above the store; Katie was portrayed as one of the good guys -- as well she should be.
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