For readers who like their dark fantasy light on fright and big on laughs, The Creeps, the third of John Connolly's Samuel Johnson Tales (following The Infernals), should be just what the demon, er, doctor, ordered.
Samuel Johnson and his faithful dachshund, Boswell, may have saved the world--again--from the legions of the Great Malevolence, but the course of his life never did run smooth. Nurd, Samuel's bad-at-evil demon friend, and his minion Wormwood are lodging with Samuel and his mum, but Nurd seems morose lately. Samuel finally lands the gorgeous Lucy Highmore as his girlfriend, only to find that her beauty is definitely skin-deep. Oh, and then there's the brand-new evil threatening Samuel's village. Shadows gather, the veil between universes continues to thin and the Great Malevolence sends an emissary to reassemble the atoms of his most feared lieutenant, Ba'al, who most recently went by the name of Mrs. Abernathy. The storm breaks when a toy store opening unleashes a plague of pointy-toothed toy elves--and an old foe seeks to destroy Samuel for good.
Connolly is the Terry Pratchett of horror, right down to his mastery of the sardonic footnote. Vampire eyeballs (or are they eyeball vampires?), evil reindeer and one very polite monster make The Creeps a macabre giggle-fest to delight fans of horror and humor in equal measure. Connolly also manages the neat trick of wrapping up the series in a way that still leaves room for more stories of Samuel and his motley crew of demon-busting heroes. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager at Latah County Library District and blogger at Infinite Reads