Author Robert Kroese has written an engaging and humorous first novel without trying too hard to be funny. Indeed, Kroese’s sense of humor flows naturally in this tale of a Christian journalist caught up in the antics - and politics - of angels and demons (like, real angels and demons, not the Dan Brown novel).

Christine is a woman who writes for a religious news journal, mainly covering rogue cults who think ‘the end is near.’ Through a couple of twists of fate, she meets up with an Angel, Mercury, who informs her that ‘the end’ really is near. And it has started.

Mercury Falls follows the two main characters through a maze of angelic bureaucracy and backstabbing as they figure out who is behind the start of the apocalypse. The more they learn, the more they are able to unravel the plot and prevent Armageddon.

The secondary characters are actually the most amusing in this novel, including one angel who feels the need to interject useless trivia into any conversation. And leave it to a quirky writer like Kroese to make footnotes fashionable again! Even with several laugh-out-loud moments, this is not a silly book about a gloomy topic. Mercury Falls is a little gem about how agents of Heaven and agents of Hell are only too human.

Pros: quirky plot that doesn’t go over the top with two-dimensional humor; memorable characters and supporting cast; satisfying ending.

Cons: despite the light-hearted feel, there is one scene of mass casualties which seems out of place.

Bottom Line: Mercury Falls is to the apocalypse what Catch-22 is to war. Recommended.