Thanatos is mad as hell…and he wants to stomp around and shout a bit…Lethal Rider is the third book of Larissa Ione’s Lords of Deliverance series. This series expands upon her earlier Demonica series. The author creates a rich, textured world, full of angels, demons, vampires, and the like. This world is on the cusp of an apocalypse of Biblical proportions brought about by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Pestilence.In each of her Lord of Deliverance books, the author focused on one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Eternal Rider focused on Ares or War. The second book Immortal Rider was Limos’ or Famine’s story. This book is Thanatos’ or Death’s story. Mild spoilers for the previous book may occur in this review – I’ll try to avoid them as much as possible.When we last left Thanatos in Immortal Rider, he had been, shall we say, compromised. In order to stave off the inevitable, his brother and sister Ares and Limos put Than in an induced paralysis. Our story begins as Than wakes from his paralysis. He’s mad as hell, and he wants revenge. The source of Than’s troubles Regan, has some problems of her own and they all seem to rest on her “…little pony.” I didn’t really like Regan in the previous book. In this book, she shines. First of all, she is flawed – she suffers from OCD so much so that she rearranges all of Thanatos’ stuff. She is also not fully human, which gives her some unique sensitivities. Regan has a lot of issues to sort through and I liked how her character developed throughout the story. Whenever Thanatos was in a scene, I kept envisioning a kind of tattooed caveman stomping around and beating upon his chest. He’s mad at his family. He’s mad at Regan. He wants justice and a choice. One of my favorite scenes was a flashback of Thanatos and Reseph talking before Reseph’s seal broke. They were talking about having a normal life and family. When Reseph asks Thanatos if he would have a mate and family, Thanatos replies:“In a heartbeat,”…”I would give up everything, my very soul, to have just one human lifetime with a mate and children.”Thanatos’ character surprised me and I liked what I saw.There is no “insta-love” between Regan and Thanatos. Both characters are at odds with each other. Yet, when another male looks at Regan, Than has some alpha-male issues. He even slipped up and called her mate!Meanwhile, there is a lot of political maneuvering within the Aegis and the angel hierarchy. There are a few surprising betrayals – never saw those coming! There are also a few unexpected alliances. One revelation near the end left me astonished. With regards to our favorite bad guy Pestilence/Reseph, I don’t know, this destruction of the world stuff began to grow old. Just how much death, destruction, and mayhem could a Horseman of the Apocalypse bring about? I really enjoyed the cameo appearances of the Demonica characters in this book. Eidolon, Shade, Wraith, Con, and Kynan appear in this book. I missed that sexy seminal demon doctor Eidolon. Larissa Ione is a master storyteller. Lethal Rider is an incredibly exciting read. I could not put the book down. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series – Reseph’s story – Rogue Rider. December 2012 seems so far away!Update - May 31, 2012 - Michelle and I discuss the book on Badass Book Reviews.Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for a review copy of this book.
