When a series of strange events lead Sam and Dean Winchester to a small town in North Dakota, they meet Abaddon, an angel of God who thinks he has found a way for averting the coming war between the angels and the demons - a war which will devastate the world, bringing forth the apocalypse. Given that Sam and Dean are to play host to Lucifer and the archangel Michael, they reluctantly agree to help Abaddon, who thinks he has an answer which will stop the war. Abaddon transports the boys to fifties America in order to find the missing last part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the part which holds the plan for defeating Lucifer...

Supernatural: War of the Sons is a new genre novel, and spin-off from the television series, written by Rebecca Dessertine and David Reed.

For those of you that have not followed the show fear not, the back story is complicated and dense, but the novel contains enough information that even a novice should be able to pick up what is happening.

When the boys appear in early fifties New York, with little in the way of a workable plan to steal the parchment, which is going to be auctioned to the highest bidder, the writers spend some time exploring their anachronistic behaviour. This allows a certain amount of levity but is never really explored or exploited.

The brothers plans to steal the scrolls are upset by the intervention of both demons and Julia and Walter, another couple who are plan on getting hold of the scrolls with the intent of stopping the coming war.

Much of the book is taken up with the relationship between the brothers and this father and daughter. The majority, in fact, reads like one long road movie, as the foursome travel the country, crossing and double crossing each other. Of course there is a Demon to provide a level of threat, but compared to this relationship her inclusion is almost an afterthought.

The book is fairly well written for a genre novel and there is much in the interaction between the brothers which will please fans of the show. For non-fans there is a distinct lack of depth and character development to the book, but then this is based on a television show.

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Charles Packer