Kenny Jondahl, a recovering Gulf War veteran, is jarred awake suddenly one August night to find an injured angel in his chicken house. Not realizing who or what he has found, he carries the unconscious woman into his spare bedroom and revives her.
Terry is a Nisk, one of Heaven’s military, tasked with protecting the Solar System. Millions of angels live in a vast underground complex on the back side of the Moon.
Disinclined to return to her heavenly home, Terry sets about finding work, not an easy thing when one is not entirely human. Her vertically-pupiled eyes, fangs, and tail may put off prospective employers. In short order, Kenny finds himself in Japan, with Terry on the Women’s Wrestling circuit. billed as the incredibly popular Catgirl.
The resultant publicity eventually alerts Heaven to Terry’s survival, and a small group of angels is sent to Earth by the rather dim Archangel Michael to bring her back for trial and execution. Outmaneuvering their pursuers, Kenny and Terry commandeer their ship and its pilot, heading back to Heaven to put things right with its CEO, Lucifer. There has been talk of revolution in the ranks of the heavenly host, and Terry hopes to use that unrest to lever her own forgiveness.
Continually on the run, Kenny and Terry find unlikely allies in the form of Confederate and Union scientists, the Archangel Chamuel, and Joshua ibn Miryam, a Middle Eastern musician who was only mostly dead when he was removed from the true cross on Golgotha by his lover, Mary.
Even if they stop Michael, they must still convince Lucifer to spare them, and Lucifer is not known for his warm and understanding nature.
Knocking on Heaven’s door just may not work out.
