Merit and Ethan are forced to leave Chicago to try to
avoid the Mayor’s persecution of the Vampire houses, Cadogan House in
particular. They take shelter with the local shapeshifters – though not many of
them are exactly thrilled with their presence. Especially since it’s a major
werewolf holiday and outsiders are not usually welcome.
That hostility only grows sharper when the party is
attacked by a mythical creature that shouldn’t even exist. An impossible attack
– and one that builds suspicion, which only gets worse when it turns out the
local werewolves aren’t the only supernatural group that has been targeted.
Under the threat of being scapegoated by the werewolves, Merit and Ethan have
to investigate
But Chicago doesn’t remain quiet with their absence; the
other vampire houses now fall under the mayor’s eye.
And Lakshmi, member of the Greenwich Presidium, is back in town with their judgement for the killing of one of their own – and an interesting and dangerous proposal
In many ways, the writing and character development of
this book has come a long way over the rest of the series. I can actually
believe Merit as actually being her age (and I can believe Ethan as an adult,
if not quite the 400 year old vampire he’s supposed to be). Merit also showed
some levels of skills and abilities and general thinking that made it clear why
people were turning to her for help – something that in previous books seemed a
little bemusing. While the book focuses nearly entirely on Ethan and Merit, we
also have a fair few interactions between Merit and other female werewolves
(including a couple of scenes of them being awesome) and Merit and Mallory have mended their relationship in a very
organic way. Previously Merit had been so very surrounded by men, it’s nice to
see strong female connections and some competent capable women around Merit as
well. We also have some excellent displays of leadership – more from Gabe than
Ethan, but there’s a sense of understandable leadership from both of them.
With both Mallory and Tate the book also brought up some excellent depictions and considerations of redemption – what is needed for redemption, what true contrition looks like, and the necessity of making things right
The relationship between Ethan and Merit also works well.
We have some navel gazing about losing Ethan because of the GP plans, and
definitely some appreciation of how attractive he is, but on the whole the
romance is there, reminding us how much in love they are, without distracting
from the matters at hand. We don’t have tense scenes interrupted by drooling,
for example.
Unfortunately, half way through the book we have a lull.
It’s hard to write a mystery without these – the characters don’t have any
answers, are lost and confused and are chasing down false leads. Red herring
and dead ends abound while everyone has to wait around until they get answers –
this is a very natural part of any investigation, but it’s not very fun to
read. It’s hard to keep the story going while still conveying this inherent
waiting – and the book does try and isn’t nearly as bad as many I’ve read, but
it still has a mid-book lull.
It doesn’t help that the book doesn’t have any real side
plots of merit – there are things introduced like the elves and Merit agonising
over Lakshmi’s proposal – but the former is just completely undeveloped and the
latter is clearly a prequel for future storylines. We have the ongoing Mayor of
Chicago is abusing all of her powers storyline but it’s also unsatisfactory –
because Ethan and Merit has left the city we just have reports of various
things happening without them really getting involved. Which is a shame,
because I think the legal drama, drawing in the governor and federal government,
suing and counter suing, calling in friends and allies in various
establishments could all have been an interesting storyline
