[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Snyper_front_cover_375_7465.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:He's a god of love. And he's armed.]]

->''"Sure, I deliver love all right. But everyone conveniently forgets I can take it away just as easily. Or replace it with hate. Or leave you writhing in unrequited agony. I’m not Happily Ever After. I’m a god of suffering and torment and murder-suicides."''
-->-- '''Phil Bowman''', ''[[Literature/{{Snyper}} Snyper: A Matter of Caliber]]''

''Snyper: A Matter of Caliber'' is a 2012 urban fantasy noir novel by J. Merideth Harmon, published by Harmsway Press.

A DarkerAndEdgier take on the classical Eros/Cupid mythology, the divorced, alcoholic god of romance finds his magic [[strike: arrows]] bullets of love and hate pressed into service as a divine hit man. That is, until a major shooting assignment goes south and he quits Mount Olympus for a new life as Phil Bowman, a down-and-out private detective in New York's Lower East Side.

A free preview of the first five chapters is available [[http://wp.me/a3etvr-2e here]] at getsnyper.com.

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!!''Snyper'' contains examples of:

* AliceAllusion: Phil and Persephone make several references during their first meeting. ("Guards. Garden. Blonde girl. It wasn't much of a leap.")
* BlessedWithSuck: Because love "knows no bounds", Phil has a supernatural ability to go anywhere at will. Mostly, though, it just means not needing a key for the front door or a fare card to ride the subway.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Ashley, Lauryn and Holly.
* CloudCuckooLander: As the goddess of wisdom, Athena's mind is shorting out from the information overload caused by modern technical progress. Then again, she was probably always a little batty to begin with.
* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: Largely avoided. The togas and robes are present, of course, and Olympus has access to some futuristic tech thanks to Athena. But both Olympus and the Underworld have strong traditions (within varying degrees) of maintaining their ancient-style culture.
* DefectiveDetective: Phil's relationship tailspins have left him a (mostly) friendless, alcoholic recluse who only takes cases when people pay him enough to get out of bed.
* EmotionalMaturityIsPhysicalMaturity: Ash and her friends look and act roughly high school/college age in spite of being much younger chronologically.
* ExtranormalInstitute: Artemis and Demeter manage the Nymph, Nereid and Sylvan Conservation and Protection Committee to help feral nymphs adapt to the modern world.
* FilmNoir: Existential angst. Check. Cynical outlook. Check. Moral ambiguity. Check...
* ForeignCussWord: Generally untranslated. And in Ancient Greek.
* [[LoveGoddess Love God]]: Eros (Cupid to the Romans) is the Greek god of romantic love. Although here he's far from the winged, mischievous cherub seen on Valentine's Day cards.
* HalloweenEpisode: Ashley and her friends spend much of the book wondering what they should (or can) dress up as for Halloween.
* HardboiledDetective: Phil tries to present himself as one, with varying degrees of success.
* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Holly
* MaidenAunt: Athena spins, knits, weaves tapestries of her cats and insists everyone call her "Aunt Minnie." Then again, being the virginal goddess of spincraft means she's probably the UrExample.
* MeaningfulName:
** Phil Bowman translates to "Love Archer". Athena, known to the Romans as Minerva, goes by "Aunt Minnie." The nymphs Ashley, Lauryn and Holly are named after the types of trees they emerged from.
** Phil's client is surnamed Guildenstern, which he [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] as a character from ''Hamlet''.
* OhMyGods: Especially by the nymphs.
* PerceptionFilter: People only see Phil as what they believe or expect him to look like. Also subverted in that it attracts attention from police and security officers by making him seem more suspicious.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Phil says he prefers shooting people with a low-powered .22 to the back of the head, which would typically result in these.
* ReferenceOverdosed: Most of Ashley's understanding of the "real" world comes from the pop culture and fandoms she's familiar with (particularly from the mid-to-late 2000s). Phil, unsurprisingly, tends to relate to things in terms of FilmNoir from the 1940s and '50s. Needless to say, they don't communicate well with each other.
* SillyRabbitRomanceIsForKids: Phil chalks up his failed childhood relationship with Persephone to romantic idealism and adolescent insanity. He's also become so jaded he wonders if "true love" is just an emotional delusion.
* SmarterThanYouLook: Phil downplays Ashley into the role of his DumbBlonde secretary, but she's apparently rather tech-savvy and even writes programs for the office computer.
* TheNondescript: Phil only describes himself as vaguely
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Ashley takes her three-headed dog for walks on the streets of New York City. Few people notice, and if they do, she easily explains that it was rescued from an animal testing facility. ethnic-looking, average height with dark hair and dark eyes, and that on a good day he can still pass for thirty.
* WhoShotJFK: Figures heavily into the story. Phil also says he has ten bucks with a bookie in case it was Elvis and twenty on suicide.
* [[WildChild Wild Adult]]: Ash and her friends are tree nymphs being rehabilitated by an Olympian [[ExtranormalInstitute work/study program]].
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Although tree nymphs become nascent in adult form, the girls in the program are quite young in human years. Ash is at least five, and Holly is going on seven.

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