Battle Hill Bolero

Battle Hill Bolero

“Trouble is brewing between the Council of the Dead and the ghostly, half-dead, spiritual, and supernatural community they claim to represent. One too many shady deals have gone down in New York City’s streets, and those caught in the crossfire have had enough. It’s time for the Council to be brought down—this time for good. Carlos Delacruz is used to being caught in the middle of things: both as an inbetweener, trapped somewhere between life and death, and as a double agent for the Council. But as his friends begin preparing for an unnatural war against the ghouls in charge, he realizes that more is on the line than ever before—not only for the people he cares about, but for every single soul in Brooklyn, alive or otherwise…”

This is the third and final book in the Bone Street Rumba series.

It started with:

I love the world that Older created.  This is a diverse and exciting Brooklyn.  There are people of all different races and sexual orientations.  There are American Santeria priests working alongside Haitian doctors.  The women in these books are amazing.  They defy stereotypes and each is a distinct individual.

I’m not a person who tends to drool over book covers but seriously, look at this cover.  That is amazing. I want it on a T shirt.

Unfortunately, Older creates all these wonderful characters and then doesn’t seem to fully know what to do with them.  I’ve had this complaint about a lot of his books.  The plots are forgettable.  He writes a better sense of danger here than in Shadowshaper but it is still ultimately disappointing.  I would be interested to see if that is the case if this were read back to back instead of waiting months in between.

I think this might be a series that is best binge-read.  I found myself losing details of what happened before.  Minor characters that I barely remembered become important as the series progresses.  There is a list of characters in the front of the book but reminders of who they were weren’t worked into the story.  I prefer being reminded in the text instead of having to refer to a glossary of characters.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Urban Fantasy and great characterizations.