Jake Hatcher is a combat veteran who's been trained to extract information by any means necessary--and is serving a military prison sentence for it.  After he's granted an unexpected release to attend the funeral of a brother he never knew, Hatcher becomes drawn into a mystery involving irresistibly beautiful women whose motives and intentions are difficult to discern, inhuman females known as Carnates.  Facing inscrutable adversaries and uncertain alliances, Hatcher becomes an unwitting component of a unimaginable plan, a plan intended to channel the one being that can end the reign of Heaven, and he soon finds that the streets of New York have become a secret battleground for forces he cannot comprehend.Winner of the 2009 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.