Of Love and Evil is the second novel in The Songs of The Seraphim series written by my favourite author Anne Rice.
In the first novel we met assassin for hire Toby O'Dare when he was given the opportunity to turn his back on evil and use his skills for good by helping the angel Malchiah.
Toby is back and this time Malchiah takes him to fifteenth-century Rome for his next assignment. Toby is answering the prayer of Vitale, a Jewish Physician who is tending a patient and friend who has clearly been poisoned, but by who? Toby must also get to the bottom of a haunting by a dybbuk while not being distracted by his surroundings.
Toby also finds out he has a 10 year old son, and wonders whether he is worthy of his love after all of the lives he took in his past as a deadly assassin.
Of Love and Evil was rich in a sense of place and I revelled in the sense of history it conveyed. It can be read as a stand-alone, although for character background it's probably best to read Angel Time first. I hope there's a third in the pipeline soon, but I can't find any news on that front just yet.
My rating = ****
Carpe Librum!
