The Seven Whistlers

So I am currently reading the Buffy prequel that just came out, because it stars TARA. My forever favorite. Buffy is such an expansive lore that I've gotten so behind in everything that I won't ever catch up, but I could not resist something about Tara. Even though it makes me mad all over again that she got the ending she did. GRRR. 

Anyway, Tara led me to Amber Benson, the actress that played her, and I wanted to get back to reading Amber's works. She's quite the author, screenwriter, director, etc. 

I have one full series of hers written for adults, and a stand-alone middle grade book that I'm now in the middle of rereading. (The Tara book got set aside.) So I ordered her witch trilogy, a witch anthology that she has a story in, and this book here, which was co-written by her and Christopher Golden. I like his work. I like her work. I should like this. 

And I did. 

While I was initially surprised at the book's short length (only 126 pages), it really didn't need to be any longer than it was. I think this falls into the novella category? I always forget the sizes. 

The story is about the bad things that start happening to the small Vermont town Rose lives in when large black dogs begin showing up. First, there are two. Then four. Then five. The climax takes place when there are sixth and the whistling of the seventh can be heard. 

The Seven Whistlers are hellhounds whose job it is to track down souls that did a very specific crime. They let someone else die in their place, so basically, they lived on someone else's time. These aren't cases of someone heroically sacrificing themselves to let someone else live, but times when people let others unwillingly take the blame for them, etc. 

The longer it takes the Whistlers to find the soul, the more of them appear to help, and the more bad things happen. 

So can Rose figure all this out in time to get the soul to the Whistlers? Because if that seventh gets there...it's the end of the world.