Getter is a Hell Cop, hired to go into Hell and retrieve the soul of a 10 year-old girl sent down by purgatorial error. With Sneaker, a female Hell Cop, and various friends, both soul and demon, he only wants to retrieve the girl's soul and go home. But, whispers of prophecy tell of a war for control of Hell and that Getter will be important to Hell's destiny. Getter wants no part of any prophecy.
David Burton is an American writer living in sunny Southern California. He traveled by motorcycle through Mexico, US, Canada and Alaska. From motorcycles he turned to the ocean, building and sailing his own boats to Mexico, Tahiti, Hawaii, and through the Panama Canal to Florida. He spent a lot of time reading while on the water, so he decided to write books he would have wanted to read at sea.
Having swallowed the anchor he now mops floors and collects trash for money, writes for a living, and has become a (temporarily?) unrequited sailor.
I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this book until Sneaker entered the picture. At that point things really picked up.
I liked how hell was divided up into zones like area codes for a phone exchange and that they were all vastly different from each other. Which zone you ended up in depended on what your sin and resulting punishment was.
Quite a different take on hell, but at the same time, reminiscent of Dante's 9 Circles of Hell.
I was interested enough by the end of the book to read the next in the series.
I liked this story. Interesting, original premise, interesting characters, and an interesting interpretation of Hell. I never felt that it dragged, nor did I ever feel a moment of "Oh, come now!" I'm going to have to read the next one, not because it's any kind of a cliff-hanger ending, but because I'm interested in the story. And I have no higher praise for a book than that.