[Pine Cove 03] • The Stupidest Angel

From Publishers WeeklyHilarity abounds in Moore's latest satirical gem. Sleepy Pine Cove, Calif., is abuzz with Christmas spirit, but Lena Marquez is fed up with her despicable ex-husband, Dale Pearson. On his way home from playing Santa Claus at the local lodge, Dale spies sneaky Lena uprooting his Monterey pines; he pulls a gun on her, she lashes out with a shovel and—oops!—kills him. Seven-year-old Josh Barker, thinking he's just seen the murder of Santa, prays for a miracle to save Christmas. To Lena's rescue comes Tucker Case, a slimy, reformed Casanova and DEA pilot, who gives her an alibi and sweeps her off her feet. The marijuana-cultivating town constable, Theo Crowe, suspects foul play, but Tucker intervenes with a blackmail scheme to keep the crime buried. Meanwhile, there's a new arrival in town: the glowingly blond Archangel Raziel (last seen in Lamb) has come "dirtside" on a "miracle mission" involving Josh's wish and reviving the town's dearly departed. Pine Cove's biggest challenge surfaces as comically reanimated zombies begin to rise and feast on the living, and a huge El Niño–induced storm swirls. This little slice of perverse Christmas cheer is enough to make even the most cynical Scrooge guffaw. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From BooklistReaders of The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (1999), the cast of which returns in this yarn, will confirm that, if any town could put the eerie back in Merry Christmas (whaddaya mean it's never been there--aintcha read Dickens?), it would be Moore's cut-rate California coastal paradise, Pine Cove. It all begins a few chapters in, when Dale Pearson accosts his ex, Lena Marquez, while she is stealing Christmas trees and ends up with a shovel-blade in the neck. Seven-year-old Josh Barker glimpses Dale's demise and, since Dale has on his Caribou Lodge Santa suit, assumes the jolly old elf's been offed; his Christmas wish becomes to have Santa back. Unfortunately, dim-bulb angel Raziel has drawn angelic Christmas duty, which is to grant one child's Christmas wish, and eventually (nothing is ever in a hurry in Moore's lurching, Margaritaville version of the world, though it reads fast) Dale/Santa is resurrected, along with quite a contingent from the same graveyard, just in time for the Christmas party in the nearby chapel. Delirious! Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved