RogerBW's Blog

Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, Carrie Vaughn 27 November 2019

2009 urban fantasy, fifth in the series. Kitty Norville, the late-night DJ who has become the world's most famous werewolf, is going to get married… in Las Vegas. So naturally she has to do a live show there too. And that isn't even the problem…

Because there's more vampire politicking, and an old-school magician who says "stay away from Them" without ever saying why, and Them (an animal show – were those still a thing in 2009? – which seems to be where all the werecreatures in Las Vegas are hiding)… and the hotel where Kitty and Ben are staying is also hosting a gun convention which has attracted all the werecreature-hunting mercenaries.

And then Ben vanishes, probably kidnapped, about an hour before the wedding. (About half-way through the book, which is a bit late for the action to start.)

What's really going on here, though, is Kitty, isolated from her pack, working out under pressure who her actual friends are and who's just making nice. Eventually she gets this right and everything shakes out more or less as it should, though there are plenty of loose ends left for future books to deal with.

It's… OK. I never really found the connection between Kitty and Ben convincing (in spite of all the hot sex), and she seems to spend a lot of time talking about other things when she's supposedly in a frenzy to find him, but the writing is always enjoyable and Vaughn effectively blends action and drama with light farce in a way that's perilously hard to get right.

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Previous in series: Kitty and the Silver Bullet | Series: Kitty Norville | Next in series: Kitty Raises Hell

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