Matthew Black

Death was never part of Matthew Black's plans. Neither was working for Heaven.

Matthew Black is an ordinary young man with an extraordinary talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One rainy morning, a split-second decision to save a stranger from an oncoming bus costs him his life-and the chance at a future with Maddie, the girl he's finally worked up the courage to ask out.

But when Matthew arrives at Heaven's gates, he discovers that his death was a clerical mistake. He's seventy-two years early, and the celestial bureaucracy has no idea what to do with him.

Heaven, it turns out, has bigger problems.

Two thousand years earlier, God disappeared from His throne, leaving the archangels to manage a universe they were never meant to run. Now an uneasy alliance of gods from countless pantheons oversees the afterlife, and Gabriel sees Matthew's predicament as an opportunity: appoint him as Heaven's newest guide for wandering souls.

Matthew has other ideas.

With help from Hermes and Thoth, he discovers that the dead don't all belong in the same paradise-and that guiding souls to their rightful destinations is far more complicated than Heaven would have him believe.

Armed with a battered Zippo, a pack of clove cigarettes, and a stubborn refusal to do what he's told, Matthew takes on a job that sends him through the forgotten pathways between worlds. There, he'll encounter predatory creatures that feed on lost souls, the consequences of Heaven's political intrigues, and an ancient force whose authority even the gods must respect.

And somewhere in the shadows, someone is paying very close attention.

Matthew Black: Genesis is a darkly humorous supernatural urban fantasy about life after death, divine incompetence, unlikely friendships, and one young man's determination to do the right thing-even when the universe itself seems determined to stop him.

The beginning of Matthew Black's story is only the beginning of his troubles.