‘Devil Said Bang’ best Sandman Slim novel yet

The Devil has taken off on an extended “leave of absence” and left Richard Stark, aka Sandman Slim, to take his place as the new “Lucifer.” The folks “downtown” aren’t too happy about the whole deal and Stark is not too jazzed about it either.

Author Richard Kadrey is back with tons of horrific fun in the latest installment of his popular neo-horror Sandman Slim series, “Devil Said Bang.”

When last we left Stark, the half angel/half human fighting machine known as Sandman Slim, he had been tricked into taking over as the new “Lucifer,” the head dude of Hell, and now he’s trying to figure out how to do this tricky job.

It would seem like it would be a snap with all kinds of cool perks, but Stark is dismayed to find out that it’s a lot of paper-pushing and keeping the little demons down there happy. All he wants to do is find a way back to his beloved, if not bedraggled, L.A.

So he does.

And boy is he in for a big surprise.

L.A. is decidedly worse off than when he left it — the old demon crowd is on a rampage, his true love Candy has hooked up with a gal pal, and there’s a serial killing ghost kid who has everyone on edge.

Just the kind of mayhem that Sandman Slim was made for.

Featuring a slightly deranged storyline and filled with macabre, off-kilter humor and lots of blood and guts, “Devil Said Bang” is the best of the four “Sandman Slim” novels to date. The action is roller-coaster fast, the characters are unforgettable, and the novel is just a lot of fun to read — provided you have a warped sense of humor.