Diana Rowan was a vampire assassin, part of the FBI’s
squad specialising in destroying vampires. Then she married Robert, had a
child, Katie and took a desk job training new recruits. It’s a happy life… but
missing someone
Then an old enemy seems to return to the grave and Diana is
pressed to return to the hunt again, once again entering into the vampire world…
but can she balance her newly domestic life with the return to the hunt?
This book almost reads like an origin story for me – even
though the main character, Diana, has been a vampire hunter/executioner/trainer
for some time. This is clearly the start of a whole new chapter of her life,
and setting her up for the new series revolving around her in her new life
Despite that, it didn’t feel temporary or transitory. A
lot of origin stories will introduce characters and you know most of them won’t
be relevant or will be replaced or will change rapidly. It can be a barrier to
get invested in them – you see the character starting a series in domestic
bliss, know it’s not going to last so the characters that make up that domestic
bliss are not exactly people I’m inclined to get to know.
But Diana’s marriage and her life and her family are all
such excellent parts of her development, her origin and really contribute to
who she is. Especially since it isn’t blissful and I felt like it could have
continued.
The central concept of the book is one of very every day
sexism. Diana was a vampire executioner, she worked for the FBI as part of its
secret supernatural police unit and, like many working women, she chose to
change her job (and become a trainer rather than the more dangerous, irregular
hours and taxing role as an active duty agent) when she had a baby. I think
there is a lot of excellent balance in how this life is depicted. Her husband, Robert
is not a terrible person and she’s not unhappy – far from it. But she does have
moments of frustration, this isn’t entirely the life she wanted even if she enjoys
it, and there are parts missing, parts she does miss from her job before she
benched herself. She’s not miserable or sad or angry – but it isn’t perfect.
We also see that not-perfect fray and show all of its
sexist flaws when Diana begins to return to her old job, become more active and
the cracks show. And it doesn’t require Robert to become all Gorian on her to get
the point across – it’s much more subtle and pervasive than that: and not just
from him, but her own instincts and assumptions. Like when he is working late
is it assumed, when she is working late it is a vast imposition. When he looks
after their daughter it’s him doing extra, when she looks after their daughter,
it is her job. When she stays home with her, it’s the normal acts of a parent.
When he stays home with her it’s “baby sitting”. As she tries to spend more time to do her
hunting (exacerbated, of course, by her inability to tell Robert what she is
doing) the cracks and the strain grow more and more. It’s all fuelled by his
expectations of what she should be as a wife and mother and even her own
expectations and assumptions imposed upon herself.
