Jane Yellowrock has a job from Leo Pelliser, Master of
the city of New Orleans and, as it turns out, Master of the whole South-east of
the United States, meaning he has far more oomph than Jane imagined.
He has sent her to escort Gregoire, one of his top
vampires, to negotiate with the local vampire Shaddock who wishes to become
Master of Asheville on account of his children becoming vampires super-quickly
without decades of madness. It’s an important bodyguard job and Jane is focused
on it and in charge despite the distraction of Rick, her sort-of-boyfriend
turning into a wereleopard.
Unfortunately things are complicated by the remaining
werewolves from the pack she destroyed in the last book seeking revenge – and by
revenge that means slaughtering people in her area. Jane is forced to work with
local police to find the wolves, balancing law enforcement with orders from Leo
who wants them dead as soon as possible. Jane has her own reasons since Molly
and her family (and coven witches) are in the area –Molly’s husband blames her
for putting their children in danger, Jane cannot stand the idea that she has put
them at risk again
But even Molly’s coven isn’t a source of peace – with it
being betrayed from within with dark magic, old secrets and an ancient evil
being summoned at the heart of it – an evil whose influence is making all Jane’s
jobs that much harder and that much more complicated.
This book was overwhelming. There was a lot happening –
with the parley talks, lethal werewolves running around killing people, the
Grindylow apparently with its own agenda, Kenmebi both mentoring and
threatening to kill Rick, the rogue vampire to hunt down and, of course,
Evangeline playing her own game. At times I was almost lost, I kept wondering
what plot line we were on and where we were going and why. Usually, such a book
annoys me, I wish they’d remove a plot line so the story would flow better, there
wouldn’t be so many distractions and I wouldn’t feel like I had to take notes
to try and keep up with everything. But not in this case. Yes it was overwhelming
but it was equally clear that it was meant to be. As Jane bounced from crisis
to crisis, slipping sleep, desperately trying to fit everything in – this was
one of the themes of the book; exhaustion, stress and constantly have to run to
keep up with everything – and everything being too important to just cast aside
or even realistically delay. It makes for a very strong part of the book, being
very sustained and well balanced. I was overwhelmed, but I wasn’t lost.
I also like how the storylines come together – it adds
the plausibility of not having everything just spontaneously happen at once and
prevents everything in Jane’s life happening in complete isolation. It is very
well done and doesn’t feel even remotely strained or convoluted – it flows
naturally and it’s also completely and utterly unpredictable. I didn’t see the
ending, I didn’t see what was happening and discovered everything as and when
the characters did – the mystery was mysterious and the confusion was natural
and shared with the protagonist.
The pacing was excellent, I was never bored and it never dropped and got lost. The action scenes were well laid out and described – nothing was too rushed or dragged. Everything was described appropriately – it was a very well balanced book, really well written and never once made me want to put it down.
We’re opening up to see more of this world – including expanding
on the Grindylows, the little green police of the werecreatures, some more on
the werewolve’s curse, a lot more on how witch covens and witch magic works
which I was desperate to know and a lot more knowledge about Molly’s family.
I’m also extremely excited by the number of new people
who have learned about Jane’s Skinwalker-ness – hopefully this will develop
into a lot of fascinating plots in the future. That should be fun especially
linked to her increasing embroilment in vampire politics.
Jane is an interesting character, in charge and defiant
without having lashings of Keillie Independence and an investigator without
spunky agency. In general, I like her,
she’s fun, capable, human and her
interactions with Beast are a great edition to the story. She does have an
overdeveloped sense of guilt and responsibility – which can be an interesting character
trait and character flaw more than anything else. It makes her an interesting
and complex character that she does feel responsible for thing that she is, at
best, only tangentially to blame for (if that.) I don’t agree with her guilt –
but I do like how it adds texture to this character, especially on the context
of someone who is fighting with her own moral compass. This is not a heroine
who just kills people and moves on – she is torn up about killing blood
servants and trying to find how this fits in with her own conscience and
beliefs. I think this is going to be an interesting conflict if it is well
developed so
What I don’t like is Big Evan’s willingness to blame her.
Partly because it’s unfair and unduly harsh but she’s also utterly denying the
agency of his wife in the last book – did their children end up being put in
danger? Yes, but it was as much Molly’s decision as ever it was Jane. And
blaming Jane for the thieving and murdering of Evangeline is ludicrous. I want
to like the character of Big Evan but he’s going to have to do a lot to redeem
this.
I am not fond of what relationships do to Jane’s usually
sensible, bad ass brain. At several points while playing bodyguard, Jane’s
attention wanders while she is contemplating her love life. She actually misses
huge chunks of the conversation while she’s navel gazing. It looks
unprofessional to say the least. In fact, the romance sections of this book in
general frustrate me – make it happen or don’t but the circling is tiresome.
Jane is also turning into one of those characters who tells us repeatedly that
she’s not beautiful while everyone else is shocked, SHOCKED, that she doesn’t
see how drop-dead gorgeous she is – it’s getting to be a tired trope.
There is also an interesting theme being raised about
lack of faith – especially since it can cost you your guardian angel, so lack
of faith has a real tangible consequence. I’m very wary about where this is
going though, especially since Jane is concerned about her faith as a Christian
while at the same time reaching for her beliefs and traditions as a Cherokee –
which becomes even more shaky when we consider that the Cherokee demon was
banished, in part, with the aid of an apparently Christian angel. There could
be a lot of interesting things developed here, but equally it could be a very
fraught path as well with the belief systems being put into conflict. I would like
to see more development of her Cherokee history – I had hoped for more in this
book, but there was still a powerful insight into history without being
appropriative but still grasping the full tragic power of it.
Inclusionwise we have GBLT people who are revealed by
past exposition, which seems to be a theme in these books. We have bisexuals
who have had same-sex relationships in the past (we’re told) but not right now (now
they’re largely focused on Jane). This
has been an ongoing pattern and shows a willingness to “tell” GBLT people but a
reluctance to “show.”
We do have several POC. First of all, obviously, is Jane
who is Cherokee. We also have several side POC and Kenmebi, a black man. I
liked how he appeared in the previous book but he’s lost some ground here. Last
book he lost his mate and is currently grieving - but I don’t like how Kenmebi’s grief was portrayed
– I’d have been happier seeing more grief rather than him looking more like a
lazy, angry drunk who they occasionally dragged out to save them. I think it
was a missed opportunity to develop the character and bring more were knowledge
to the series – as well as avoid the unpleasant black stereotypes that dog him.
A lot more could have been done with this. Derek is a more fun character but he
plays a much more minor role.
All in all, a well written, well paced book with a
compelling mystery and exciting action scenes, all carried by a human, well
developed and powerful main character I desperately want to learn more about. I
look forward eagerly to the next book, with only a little trepidation on some
shaky areas
