Clay's wife recently left him for another man, his writing career is stalled, his personal life is a mess, and he's falling behind in his work as an acquisitions editor at a small Boston publisher. He desperately needs a break, an infusion of something positive into his life that will cast out the worst of his past while giving him a goal he can believe in.

When he finds an omniscient, dark-haired stranger waiting for him at a cafe on a rainy night with a story to tell, Clay views him as a nutcase or perhaps a desperate author. In reality, Lucian is an angel who fell from grace before grace existed and his memories of Lucifer's fall are so compelling that Clay soon sees that a salable manuscript might very well result from looking down on creation from a demon's perspective.

Had Clay recalled the story of Faust, me might have more strongly resisted the kind of kismet that's likely to result from collaborating with a demon even on a quest for the truth. Yet, in his mind's eye, the book he will publish represents his personal, professional and financial salvation. While Lucian wants to shatter myths and set the record straight about his kind, there's a prospective catcher in the rye lurking within an early comment to Clay: "My story is ultimately about you."

Lee's book is not only stunning, but based upon solid Biblical research. An author's note at the end of the book includes the scriptural references on which she has based her interpretation of Lucifer's fall. She describes that fall with such lyrical virtuosity that it's very easy to find oneself reading the book like Gospel, and then reacting to the story with the same addictive need to know how it ends as Clay feels.

Among other things, Clay feels that Lucian's memories are more than an "I was there" account of the devil's handiwork; they also demonstrate God's love for mankind, the "clay people," as the demon sees them. This story is inventive, unique and well told. Those strengths, though, fall away as inconsequential when contrasted to its greatest strength: believability. That's what keeps readers reading: they know that if the story is about Clay, it might be about them as well. The lines between Lee's protagonist and all of mankind are devilishly blurred here, and it takes an author with exceptional insight and talent to accomplish such a marvelous feat in any book--most especially in a first book.