Shades – The Demise of Blake Beck by Anders Rauff-Nielsen

For Blake Beck, it proves to be no ordinary day when he finds a razor blade in the morning mail. As Director of Black Ops within the CAC, Blake hardly expected the morning mail to include a letter from his boss telling him to kill himself.

The razor blade is intended to be Blake's ticket to Shades – the realm beyond life where all souls go to await their celestial paperwork. Following his instincts to save himself, Blake soon finds himself caught in the frontlines of the age-old war between Dæth, the ruler of Shades, and Mr. Ferre, the first undead.

As the uncovering of a mystical medieval manuscript threatens to turn the tide of the war, Blake has no choice but to embark on a fateful hunt to secure the manuscript’s hidden secrets, while his old nemesis Vincenzo looms in the shadows, out to claim the secrets first. Unfortunately, the resurfacing of Blake's one true love, as well as his own sense of right and wrong, threatens to put an end to his endeavors as Blake discovers that he is merely a pawn in the chess game of gods...