RogerBW's Blog

2006 urban fantasy, second in the series. Kitty Norville, the late-night DJ who brought werewolves and vampires into the public eye, is summoned to testify before a Senate committee.

Kitty's still less assertive than she ideally needs to be, but that suits the tone of the story, which introduces us to more werewolves and vampires outside the local area of the first book. Washington obviously has supernatural communities; but, rather interestingly, the leaders of both of them take a much more relaxed approach to leadership, rather than the simplistic macho dominance that we've seen earlier in the series.

Kitty goes in determined to rely on nobody, but of course there's far too much going on to make that practicable; there are multi-sided political fights, allies of convenience, and all the good messy stuff that too many stories leave out.

A potentially interesting long-term threat is resolved perhaps a bit too easily, but even this is used effectively: oh, your granny from the old country told you to wear these herbs as a charm? Let's call her (from just outside the enemy camp) and see if she's got more good advice to offer.

I wasn't as enthused as I was for the first book, but there's still fun to be had here. Followed by Kitty Takes a Holiday.