Black Wings series

Black Wings series


Author	Christina Henry
Illustrator	Kriss Keller
Publication date	November 30th 2010
Published by	Ace
ISBN	0441019633
Publication Order
Preceded by First Book	Followed by Black Night (Black Wings, #2)

Black Wings series by Christina Henry.

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Urban Fantasy

Series Description or Overview[]

Maddy is a Reaper who escorts souls to the afterlife.

Books in Series[]

Black Wings series:

Black Wings (2010)
Black Night (2011)
Black Howl (2012)
Black Lament (2012)
Black City (2013)
Black Heart (2013) ~ excerpt: ChristinaHenry.Net
Black Spring (October 28th 2014) ~ Final

Shorts, Anthologies and Guides[]

A collection of short stories.

Night Out
Moonlight and Sunscreen
Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On the Lights?
The 12 Dancing Princes
A Gargoyle’s Guide to Chicago by Beezle
The Care and Feeding of Gargoyles by Beezle
A Good Bargain

~ Read on author's site: Short Stories » ChristinaHenry.Net

World Building[]

Setting[]

Chicago, Illinois (United States)

Places:

Supernatural Elements[]

✥ Reapers, angels, nephilim, gargoyle, ghosts, faeries, Lucifer, Hell, denizens of Hell, Fallen Angels, portals,

Glossary:[]

The Door: where Maddy leads the souls she's in charge of sending safely to the other side; if they refuse to pass through the Door three times, they are permanently stuck on this side as a ghost;
Azazel’s serum: vampires that are immune to the sun have overrun Chicago

Groups & Organizations:[]

The Agency: giant, paper-pushing bureaucracy that predicts and then records all deaths—Agents are responsible for escorting souls after death

World[]

✥ Maddy inherited her career as an Agent from her mother. She gets her weekly list of people who are going to die, and meets their souls to hopefully usher them to the Door. Behind this Door, Maddy has no idea what lurks. But she knows her boss J.B gets really angry with extra paperwork, and if the souls choose not to enter the Door and become ghosts, there is a lot of extra paperwork. Sometimes it is hard for Maddy to look imposing when trying to convince the souls the Door is the right option. If the souls are asked three times to go the Door and they refuse, they become a ghost to haunt the world forever. To get to all the locations Maddy needs to go, she has wings that sprout out of her back. ~ Smexy Books

Protagonist[]

✥ Madeline (Maddy) Black is a 30-year-old virgin in an alternate Chicago, where she shares her home with a sentient, and often humorous, gargoyle (Beezle). Maddy is a reaper...a soul escort...an agent of death—a no-choice career that she inherited from her mother. In that role, she works for the Agency, which employs a host of reapers. In her reaper form, she has huge wings and can fly around the city, invisible to most of the population. Ongoing characters include many of the familiar denizens of Hell, including angels, nephilim, and Lucifer and his many minions. ~ Fang-tastic Fiction: Christina Henry: Black Wings

Sidekick[]

Name: Beezle / What: gargoyle / Sidekick-to: / About: cranky, loves popcorn / Book First Seen: Black Wings

Characters Chart[]

Characters	What	About
Madeline Black	Reaper, soul escort	Agent of Death, escorts souls to the Afterlife; Lucifer’s granddaughter; Azazel's thrall. Ramuel's son. Lucifer's grandson; in love with Gabriel;
Gabriel Angeloscuro	Half angel	roommate; Maddy's bodygurad; Azazel's thrall. Ramuel's son. Lucifer's grandson. He is in love with Maddy
Beezle	gargoyle	home guardian; Maddie's best friend & sidekick;
Nathaniel	Maddy's (arranged)fiance;	never refers to Gabriel by name; unlikable; an illusion of Nathaniel had debased Maddy; proud right hand angel of Azazel;
Antares		Maddy's half brother; out for blood
J.B., Jacob Bennett	Maddy's boss	runs the Agency for reapers; mean-spirited; son of Amarantha;
Lord Azazel	fallen angel	powerful fallen angel and the right hand of Lucifer; Maddy'r father; Maddy has been named Azazel’s heir;
Ramuell	demon	Evil
Samiel	angel-nephilim	son of Ramuell (nephilim) & Ariell (angel);
Ramuell	nephilim, demon	son of Lucifer and a mortal; evil; Maddy killed him; father of Samiel;
Queen Amarantha	fae Queen	Maddy must negotiate a new land and power treaty; JB's mom;
Lord Lucifer	The Devil	Maddy's grandfather; master strategist;
Jude	werewolf	second-in-command of the local wolf pack; won't defy his alpha; infamously hostile, hates Maddy; Wade told him to contact Maddy should something go wrong;
Wade	alpha of wolf pack
Therion	vampire leader	wants Maddy Black’s head;
Puck		trouble maker;
Evangeline		Lucifer's girlfriend: plans to marry in bk-7; resents Maddy for Lucifer's attention;
Jack Dabrowski	blogger	intent on chronicling her every move for the world to see
Alerian	fallen angel	Lucifer’s bro; gets the City to round up all supernatural creatures into a camp;
Judas

To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column. Or, in Source Mode: copy-paste rows.

Cover Artist[]

Artist: Kris Keller

Website: Lott • Reps: Kris Keller

Publishing Information[]

Publisher: Ace
Author Page: Christina Henry - Penguin Books USA
Bk-1: Paperback, 295 pages, Pub: Nov 30-2010, ISBN-0441019633

Book Cover Blurbs[]

✤ BOOK ONE BLURB—Black Wings (2010): As an Agent of Death, Madeline Black is responsible for escorting the souls of the dearly departed to the afterlife. It's a 24/7 job with a lousy benefits package. Maddy's position may come with magical powers and an impressive wingspan, but it doesn't pay the bills. And then there are her infuriating boss, tenant woes, and a cranky, popcorn-loving gargoyle to contend with. Things start looking up, though, when tall, dark, and handsome Gabriel Angeloscuro agrees to rent the empty apartment in Maddy's building. It's probably just a coincidence that as soon as he moves in demons appear on the front lawn. But when an unholy monster is unleashed upon the streets of Chicago, Maddy discovers powers she never knew she possessed. Powers linked to a family legacy of tarnished halos. Powers that place her directly between the light of Heaven and the fires of Hell. ~ Goodreads

✤ BOOK TWO BLURB—Black Night (2011): Madeline Black is an Agent of death, meaning she escorts the souls of people who have died to the afterlife. Of course, not everyone is happy to see her... If obstinate dead people were all that Maddy had to worry about, life would be much easier. But the best-laid plans of Agents and fallen angels often go awry. Deaths are occurring contrary to the natural order, Maddy's being stalked by foes inside and outside of her family, and her two loves-her bodyguard, Gabriel, and her doughnut-loving gargoyle, Beezle-have disappeared. But because Maddy is Lucifer's granddaughter, things are expected of her, things like delicate diplomatic missions to other realms. ~ Goodreads | Black Night (Black Wings, #2) by Christina Henry

✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—Black Howl (2012): Madeline Black is an Agent of death, meaning she escorts the souls of people who have died to the afterlife. But lately, some spirits don't feel like crossing over... Something is wrong with the souls of Chicago's dead. Ghosts are walking the streets, and Maddy's boss wants her to figure out why. At the same time, the pact that Maddy unwittingly made with the local werewolves comes back to bite her when their alpha is kidnapped. As Lucifer's heir, she should be able to discover who—or what—is responsible for both occurrences, but the fallen haven't been too happy with her since she agreed to harbor Gabriel's half brother, Samiel. And while work is bad enough, Maddy has a plethora of personal problems, too. Now that Gabriel has been assigned as her thrall, their relationship has hit an impasse. At least her sleazy ex-fiancé, Nathaniel, is out of the picture—or so she thinks. ~ Goodreads | Black Howl (Black Wings, #3) by Christina Henry

✤ BOOK FOUR BLURB—Black Lament (2012): Devastated and grieving, Maddy unexpectedly finds hope with the discovery that she is pregnant. But Maddy's joy is short lived when Lucifer informs her that he wants the baby, hoping to draw on the combined power of two of his bloodlines. Maddy is determined that her grandfather will never have her child, but she’s not sure what she can do to stop him. Being pregnant is stressful enough, but Maddy suddenly finds herself at odds with the Agency—forbidden from meddling in the affairs of the supernatural courts. When a few of her soul collections go awry, Maddy begins to suspect that the Agency wants to terminate her employment. They should know by now that she isn't the sort to give up without a fight. ~ Goodreads | Black Lament (Black Wings, #4) by Christina Henry

✤ BOOK FIVE BLURB—Black City (2013): Former Agent of death Madeline Black may have been stripped of her wings—but she hasn’t lost her purpose… When Maddy finally killed her father, Azazel, she thought his depraved experiment died with him. But now Chicago has been infested with vampires immune to the effects of the sun, and the bloodbath is worse than she could have ever imagined. While the Agency refuses to interfere with other supernatural courts, Maddy is determined to do everything within her power to save her city—wings or no wings. But when the leader of the vampires requests that she turn herself in or risk more deaths, Maddy becomes a target for the very people she’s trying to save. Left with no other choice, she turns to Lucifer, the one creature who has the power to help her. But her grandfather’s aid has always come at a price. ~ Goodreads | Black City (Black Wings, #5) by Christina Henry

✤ BOOK SIX BLURB—Black Heart (2013): As a former Agent of Death, Madeline Black is no stranger to witnessing violent ends. But being the one to cause them is an entirely different story… Despite her having saved Chicago from a vampire invasion, the Agency wants to get Maddy off their payroll—permanently. With the deadly Retrievers hot on her trail, she has no choice but to trust Nathaniel to port her to safety. But even the exotic and dangerous world that she winds up in is not as peaceful as she would have hoped. Caught in a turf war between a group of fae and a disturbingly familiar foe, Maddy soon discovers that the twisted plots of her grandfather, Lucifer, and his brothers extend even into this unknown realm. Now, with enemies gathering on all sides, Maddy’s fate is looking darker than ever. And to protect her unborn son from her adversaries, she may have to tap into a power she hoped never to access… ~ Goodreads | Black Heart (Black Wings, #6) by Christina Henry

✤ BOOK SEVEN BLURB— (OCT 28, 2014): A former Agent of death, Madeline Black now has everything to live for, most importantly, her unborn child. But Chicago has become ground zero in a struggle between ancient creatures, and only Maddy can stop the carnage… The mayor of Chicago has announced a plan to round up the city’s supernatural beings and put them in camps. With her due date looming, Maddy’s best move would be to lay low for a while. But not everyone is willing to respect her privacy. Hounded by tentacled monsters, a rogue shapeshifter, and a tenacious blogger, Maddy turns to her most powerful ally, her uncle Daharan, only to find him missing. Just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, Maddy gets an invitation in the mail—to Lucifer’s wedding. Turns out everyone has been invited, friends and enemies alike. And with that kind of guest list, it’s highly unlikely there will be a happily ever after. ~ Goodreads | Black Spring (Black Wings, #7) by Christina Henry

First Sentences[]

Black Wings (2010) — I hate it when a soul goes all stubborn on me.
Black Night (2011) — I stood in the alley between Damen and Wolcott in the recently trendy neighborhood of Wicker Park.
Black Howl (2012) — "Legs in the air, heels towards the ceiling.
Black Lament (2012) — Lucifer put his arm around me.
Black City (2013) — Jude, Samiel and Nathaniel stood in front of the TV, their eyes grave.
Black Heart (2013) — "You have to get out of the house—now," J.B. said.
Black Spring (2014) — I woke to the sound of dogs barking.