Kelley Armstrong is well-known among urban fantasy fans for her Women of the Otherworld series featuring strong female protagonists who also happen to be not entirely of this world. Eve Levine has just joined their ranks.

Eve is a half-demon mistress of the dark arts -- or she was in life. After her death, she was recruited by the Fates (yes, those three with the spindle, thread and sharp, pointy shears) to be a sort of rebel angel. She does what angels are supposed to do, but in her own somewhat unorthodox way. After all, as a half-demon, she has contacts outside the realm of the average avenging angel.

But after years of being penalized for breaking the rules -- which was what she was hired for after all -- and with her latest vacation denied by the Fates, Eve has had enough. The Fates want her to put down that uprising by the djinn? Fine. But she'll do it her way, so that when the job's done, the Fates will have no choice but to fire her.

Except that the uprising isn't what it seems and someone is out to get Eve.

Angelic is very short, only novella-length, but Subterranean Press specializes in printing novellas. Despite the limited length, Amstrong manages a sufficiently twisty mystery with a likeable heroine that we will hopefully be seeing more of. (And hopefully next time, we'll see more of the supporting cast who had little more than cameo appearances in this outing.)