Everyone loves summer, right? Great weather, holidays, ice creams…Yep, summer is great.

NO! SUMMER IS AWFUL! Summer means that all your favourite shows have ended and the only sweet oasis in the TV desert is the prospect of Comic Con panels; evil, evil spoilers and the tie-in novel. Luckily for Supernatural fans there are three this summer from Titan books to fill those empty days full of Sam, Dean, Castiel and a legion of terrifying demons.

‘The Unholy Cause’ sends Sam and Dean to Georgia where they happen upon a group of civil war re-enactors who are mysteriously managing to blast and fillet each other with replica bayonets. Turns out that one of the scamps got his hands on a cursed artefact which is slowly killing its way through those who dare to touch it. Despite this, it seems that everyone wants to get their hands on it, and our boys have to try and contain or destroy the menace, which may or may be linked to their bigger problem – the impending apocalypse.

The events of the novel take place somewhere towards the middle of season five – if you know that Castiel is busy looking for God in all the wrong places, and that Sam has been made his indecent meat-puppet proposal by Lucifer, then you will remain unspoiled. There’s no mention of Michael having asked Dean to be his vessel, so that will give you an idea of how far in we are.

Joe Schreiber does a great job of gleefully describing the blood, guts and carnage of both the civil war and, hell, anything in Supernatural. His voices are clear and authentic, though it would have been nice to have seen more dry comedy from Castiel. The author’s bio tells us he works part time as an MRI technician at a hospital, and I really like the very Winchester-y idea of  ‘genre novelist/medic’. Double lives are fun.

The novel is a must-read for the Supernatural completist, it’s pretty much a missing episode rather than the monster of the week style tie-ins which strain not to mention anything vaguely arc-related. You can buy ‘The Unholy Cause’ from all good genre bookshops, and from the Titan website.

WIN! A copy of the book by answering this question :

What is the name of the man whose body Castiel inhabits?

Email with the subject ‘Supernatural contest’. Winner announced on June 20th 2010. There are no geographic restrictions to entering.

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