An Occupation of Angels

Near the end of the second world war, the angels came, drawn to places of great suffering and bloodshed. They've remained on Earth since then; some of them, like Metatron, silently watching over us, while others, like Azrael, getting involved in organized crime. That's the setup, but that's not the interesting part of this novella.

The interesting part is that someone's starting killing angels.

The killing isn't what interests our protagonist, MI6 agent Killarney, at first. After all, she starts the story by attempting to assassinate Raphael. What concerns her is the systematic way in which they're being eliminated, and how that will affect the power balance of the Cold War.

This was a really enjoyable, fast-paced read. The espionage elements reminded me of the Bourne stories at their best, and the fantasy elements took what's becoming a very common story element (angels) and presented them in a way that seemed fresh and exciting, but also stayed true to the mythology of Judaism and Christianity, if not to the theology of them.