CHRISTMAS GORE, GOODIES, AND GUFFAWS

No current writer seems to make me smile and chuckle with wicked certainty than Chris Moore, and his The Stupidest Angel is no exception; in fact, it might be one of his more enjoyable stories. The third novel to feature the sleepy but cursed Pacific coast town of Pine Grove, plagued as it has been by man-eating demons and vengeful sea sepents, the locals now have to deal with brain-eating zombies stirred up from their eavesdropping sleep by an intelligence-challenged archangel run amuck. Around five years after our last visit, several familiar couples have found their relationships on the rocks. Theo, our good-hearted stoner lawman, and Mollie, psychotic ex-warrior screen goddess of the B-movies, are caught in a storyline not unlike O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi," with some seriously odd twists. Other couples include the socially awkward biologist and his upper-crust psychiatrist as well as a bitter women fresh from accidentally dispatching her former husband and a horndog private pilot (now working for the DEA) with his talking Malaysian fruit bat (CM fans will know who this is). Any fan of Moore who hasn't read this book yet, will be in for a treat. For those unfamiliar with his wacky sense of humor, irreverance, and sexual innuendo, you may want to try one of his earlier stories before jumping into this one. Moore likes to throw in little tidbits of perversion, less to tittilate than to catch the reader off-guard. . .for instance, you can be assured that there will be at least one (and in this case more) references to some sort of beastiality, as well as off-hand remarks on just about every area of kink. But unless one has stringent fundamentalist morals, one can only laugh. Students at, say, Bob Jones or Regent University most likely will not be carting his books around campus, and I wouldn't let anyone under 21 read it (partially because they would not have the experience to understand most of his references); but for most thinking and open-minded adults, who enjoy a little sexual mischeviousness, you just can't go wrong with Moore for a fun ride.