Back to vampires for a little while.

Remember back when Mercy pissed off the local vampire leadership? Well now she’s run out of town… and of course bumps into more vampires. One thing leads to another… vampires die… and Mercy saves the day.

Overall, it’s a bit weaker than the previous books, since it spends a lot of time in places and doing things that we haven’t spent the previous three books establishing. On top of that, I find the vampires the weakest part of the Mercyverse. They’re interesting enough, but not really anything that you won’t see in other urban fantasies. Conversely, it is nice to see a little more strength in Mercy’s ghost-related abilities. They feel more natural here, at least having been introduced in a previous book.

On the positive side, Mercy continues to work through the events of the previous books and is really starting to come into her own while at the same time not just ignoring what has happened before. Too often, novelists will use a reset button to ignore consequences; Briggs does a decent job of not taking this easy way out.

We do finally get a bit more into the paranormal romance aspects of these books, which is interesting given what has come before. And there’s of a fade to black which may be good or bad news, depending on what you’re looking for in these books.

Overall, the weakest Mercy book thus far, but still a solid read.