Product Description

To save the lives of her friends, Rachel did the unthinkable: she willingly trafficked in forbidden demon magic. And now her sins are coming home to haunt her.

As Rachel searches for the truth behind a terrifying murder, an even greater menace threatens, for the demon Algaliarept will stop at nothing to claim her, and the discovery of a shocking family secret throws Rachel's entire life into question. If she is ever to live free, Rachel must first walk willingly into the demonic ever-after in search of long-lost ancient knowledge.

But when you dance with demons, you lay your soul on the line . . . and there are some lines that should never be crossed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #465694 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-26
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This sixth offering of outlaw witch turned bounty hunter, Rachel Morgan, offers the typical Harrison yarn filled with some good laughs and the odd thrill to boot. Gigi Birmingham taps into the comedic undertones, be it the sarcasm so common to Morgan's twisted personality or simply the everyday woman aspect of the tale, thereby capturing the character's essence perfectly. As believable as she is as this generally unbelievable character, Birmingham knows exactly when to amp up the tension and captivate the listener. Always entertaining and quite likable in the title role, Birmingham offers a splendid reading of Harrison's eccentric protagonist.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison was born and raised in Michigan but has since fled south to prolong her gardening season. Her bestselling Hollows novels include Dead Witch Walking; The Good, the Bad, and the Undead; Every Which Way But Dead; A Fistful of Charms; For a Few Demons More; The Outlaw Demon Wails; and White Witch, Black Curse. She also writes the bestselling Madison Avery YA series, starting with Once Dead, Twice Shy.

Nacida en el Midwest, Kim Harrison ha sido acusada de ser bruja (entre muchas otras cosas), pero jamÁs ha visto a un vampiro. Le fascinan los cementerios, el jazz a medianoche y se viste siempre de negro.

Customer Reviews

Outlaw demons and witchy wonders
Kim Harrison ended her last book with a shocking twist: the death of Kisten, Rachel Morgan's vampire boyfriend.

And the repercussions of that climactic twist are felt all over "The Outlaw Demon Wails," a glorious follow-up that continues twisting (or is it spindling?) the plot all over. Harrison weaves together a half dozen vital storues into an even more tightly-written, shocking novel -- where we get lots and lots of new revelations and answered questions.

Rachel and her mother are shopping for Halloween costumes and talismans when the demon Al appears, destroys the shop, and nearly kills Rachel. Somebody is summoning him out of demon prison, and setting him after Rachel -- and her personal patch of holy ground is getting a big cramped, due to an increasingly bloodlusting Ivy and Jenks' massive family moving in.

And as Rachel struggle to cope with these problems, she learns that Ceri is pregnant -- and to keep her baby and the elf race healthy, they need a sample of ancient elf tissue from the ever-after. Though Rachel initially refuses, she finds that this elf drama is somehow connected to the terrible secrets of her past -- and a journey to the ever-after might help her defeat Al. But it might also open a Pandora's box of secrets about Rachel's own future...

Rachel's parentage. Her father's horrible death. Her memory loss after Kistan's death. Her friendship with Ivy. The true nature of the witches, elves and demons. Not to mention her future love life.

Yes, all these plot threads get dealt with in an utterly satisfactory way. And unlike many of her urban fantasy contemporaries, Kim Harrison weaves them into a solid, thrilling plot with a good balance of characters, action and humour. And she can keep the storyline twisting right up to the end -- literally. She introduces two massive twists toward the end that have enormous repercussions for Rachel.

It must be admitted that the plot sags in the middle of the book, when Al and the elf problem seem to get derailed in favour of Rachel's love life/social life problems. But Harrison picks up the slack quickly, and she hasn't lost her knack for tightly written, wry descriptions ("Hence the general weirdness of elves eating hot dogs in my backyard") and snappy, entertainingly self-deprecating dialogue ("Fried eggs!").

And there's plenty of quirky situations that help lighten the rather dark mood -- such as a very apologetic gargoyle crashing into Rachel's church. Jenks and his equally troublesome family provide loads of comic relief as well -- gotta love them pixies.

And Harrison's feisty heroine goes through some painful growth, learns more about her family and her true nature, and has some old wounds reopened. In a sense, this is Rachel's "grief book" -- she spends a great deal of time thinking about the loss of her father and Kisten, and freaking out when she starts remembering how they died. Fortunately Harrison avoids letting her heroine become "emo" -- note the hilarious scene where she's ashamed to admit that she's perused a vampire sex book.

But as Rachel deals with her grief and love for Kisten, Harrison delicately introduces a potential love interest. She doesn't spin anything more than chemistry yet, but it's a person who could become something to her in future.

Other characters get fleshed out as well -- we get to see underneath Trent's coolly slimy exterior to some of his hidden feelings, Ivy's vampiric nature, and even Al gets some new dimensions. And even among the peripheral characters, Harrison's quirky sense of humour is present -- just consider the vampire-sex-manual-writing ex-Presidential vampire master.

Kim Harrison's "The Outlaw Demon Wails" has a slowdown in the middle, but revs up fast for a twisty-turny, revelation-filled finale. Urban fantasy as it ought to be.

She'll Do Anything To Save Those She Loves
There's no doubt about it. Harrison has done it again and raised the stakes ever higher with her latest and greatest Hallows book. It's hard to believe this is only book six; it feels like Rachel's character has been with us forever and she only gets more "real" as the series continues. As surely as Rachel twists curses to get herself out of yet another sore spot, Harrison is twisting readers into an absolute fit of excitement with her wicked way with words.

The Outlaw Demon Wails wastes no time and swings into the demon action with the very first chapter. With a trio of sneezes from Rachel, Al's back in crushed green velvet and as ready to wreak havoc as ever. It's October and as the Hallows and Cincinatti residents prepare for the week-long Halloween festivities, Rachel is once again fending off Al's rigorously murderous attentions. Someone is letting him lose from his ever-after jail cell and Rachel has to find out who has it in for her enough to do so. The list of possibilities is long, to say the least. And suddenly, not only is Rachel in danger, but everyone she loves and cares about are too. With guilt and heartache weighing heavily on her with Kisten's demise, not to mention more than one shocking family secret, Rachel is mentally and physically tired. And when a desperate witch just can't take anymore, she'll do anything to save those she loves.

I'd been hearing that at one time this was to be the end of the series, and therefore we'd be seeing a lot of the subplots wrapped up with this installment (even though Harrison's contract has now been extended--which hey, is awesome!). Frankly, I don't agree that that many of them were really wrapped up enough to truly put away. Rather, it read more as if a new chapter had opened in many of them and they'd become even bigger an issue than they were previously. For example, Rachel's lineage has always been of keen interest, what with her surviving a deadly childhood witch illness, one that kills many a witch in infancy. Within this particular subject we have two subplots that intertwine: what Trent's father really did to her in that Make-a-Wish camp and who exactly her father is, a man that had passed on some time ago, a character that we really didn't know much about till this installment. We get oodles `o info on both of these, yet it's such a huge impact that we'll certainly be feeling the effects of them and possibly more info in the books to come. Rachel and Ivy's blood lust marathon...what can I say but that they seem to come to an understanding, finally, of where each stands in this particular relationship. I was especially pleased with Ivy this time, as she finally seems to take a step back and really look at Rachel in regards to the blood lust. I felt she actually listened this time. I do not think it's over, as the new master vamp has made a rather bold claim, but for now, it's come to a much more pleasing, not to mention manageable, point. Ceri's role is as important as ever, and there is a bump of a twist where she and another important character are concerned that ties directly into the main plot of the book. Jenks, as per usual, gets some of the best lines and a very surprising yet wonderful surprise was Rachel's mother. Up till now, her role in this part of Rachel's life has been almost nil, but I have to say that, next to Rachel, she may well have become my second most favorite character. This was a turning point in the series, and that fact is demonstrated in the way Harrison delves back into past installments to bring a lot of info to light and reveal some rather shocking incidents, as well as by incorporating a line that I really didn't think Rachel would ever cross. The following installment will be interesting to say the least, as in a gut wrenching, adrenaline inducing thrill ride, as this one was in spades. There's no need to comment on Harrison's writing/plotting/character development skills other than she has it down solid. As always, I'm feening for the next book and don't know how I'll ever wait another year.

What would you do to protect the people you love and care about?
While out shopping with her mother, Rachel finds herself sneezing several times, her demon scar itching and a pain so sharp she hunches over. Minias is looking for her, but the demon who walts in is Al, and he's after her with murder in his eyes.

Minias, who is after Al, lets Rachel know that someone is summoning him out of his cell, leaving out a compulsion to return. It seems someone is setting Al after Rachel, and she wants to know who, hoping it isn't her ex-flame, Nick.

Meanwhile, Rachel is still hurting over the loss of Kisten, badly hurting. It's been three months and she's having a hard time moving on. Marshall appears at her door; seems he's moving to Cincinnati, but with Al popping out of nowhere, demons hot after her, trouble finding her everywhere, she'd prefer it if Marshall stayed away, even if she only wants friendship for now. Trouble seems to find her at every turn, and she'd rather keep everyone away than suck them into it.

What I truly liked in this novel were the surprises, and learning what Trent was holding from Rachel, not just about her parents, but what his father's altering her DNA had actually done. Complicated, the search for Kisten's killer is on, Rachel is asked to go on a mission into the Ever-After to retrieve a sample of elvin DNA by none other than Trent, Minias wants Rachel to exchange summoning names with Al so that he can't be summoned out from the Ever-After, jailed or not, which Rachel refuses to do. Ceri is holding secrets from Rachel too. Quite a few tense and angry scenes in this book.

Oh, and a new character, Bis, seems to have popped in from out of nowhere. Can't wait for you to meet him. The dialogue between Jenks and Bis had me laughing uproariously.

There was no stopping in this one; from beginning to ending, there's action, plot twists, discussions that lead into realizations, and the spinning in Rachel's life is really felt by the reader.

This is definitely not a book to miss. By the time I hit the end of the book, the realization of where Ms. Harrison could be taking the series finally hit me, and I did the jig in my chair as I closed the book. Well worth the read, I'm wondering which out of the six is my fave so far. Now all six are so close, I can't pick just one! Congrats, Ms. Harrison, on a job well done, and I can't wait for the next MMP.