This is an odd little book, and different to most books I've ever read. The central premise of this novella is that at the end of the Second World War the archangels descended and took over the world. And these angels are the vengeful type and then some, these are not at all friendly – and are intent on keeping control.

But fifty years have passed since the angels took power - they are starting to be killed off.

It's a kind of original premise. Okay, change that – it's a very original premise.

Killarney is an MI6 operative, and her latest mission is taking her all across Europe investigating what is going on with the angels.

This book is not perfect by any means, but what it is, is exciting. There are a few clumsy moments in the prose, but these do not distract from a splendidly entertaining little tale. And little it is – it's a novella so might not be your thing if you like your books to be endlessly lengthy, and highly descriptive. This book is not – the descriptions are sparse, the action fast and furious and requires you to keep your wits about you.

The thing I have often found with newer authors is that is the ideas that count, the finer points of polished prose can be developed along the way, but coming up with the ideas cannot be learned – you either get them or you don't. Lavie Tidhar here has proven that he gets the ideas, the good ones, the ones that mean he has a chance of having a long career as an author.

Now to see if he has the career this promise suggests.

Synopsis
In 1945, the Archangels materialised over the battlefields of Europe, ushering in a new Cold War. Fifty years later, they are being killed off... one by one.

But who - or what - can kill an angel?

Killarney is a shadow executive for the Bureau, British Intelligence's most secret organisation: so secret it doesn't even officially exist. She is the best - and she always works alone. Sent on a desperate mission to locate a missing cryptographer who may prove the key to the murders, Killarney finds herself running for her life, from London to Paris to Moscow, leading to a confrontation with a very human evil in the frozen wastelands of Novosibirsk.

Plagued by dreams of a different world, and haunted by a swastika adorned with angel wings, it would take all of Killarney's resources to survive, when heaven itself may be threatened, and God herself may be walking the earth...

With an introduction from Liz Williams, An Occupation of Angels is a taut, high-octane thriller in the tradition of Adam Hall's Quiller novels, and a meditation on God and religion that echoes both Philip Pullman's Northern Lights and Tim Powers' Declare. This first novella from the winner of the Clarke-Bradbury Prize is a hallucinatory trip that is guaranteed to get you high... as high as angels.