Another re-read of this series, which has not lived up to my memories, although the third volume was an improvement. In this book, the theme - having covered demons, werewolves, and an Egyptian mummy in the first three - switches to a combination of Doctor Frankenstein and zombies. Vicki, who has avoided taking calls from her mother due to busyness or not being in the mood for her mother's usual questions into whether she is getting serious with Mike Celluci or Henry Fitzroy (her mother has never appeared physically in the books before and doesn't know Henry is a 450 year old vampire), is devastated when she receives a phone call to tell her that her mother died suddenly of a massive heart attack at work. She rushes off to deal with the funeral, keeping her emotions firmly clamped down - apart from her usual anger - and the two men have to track her down to Kingston in time for the funeral. At which point, she discovers that the coffin is empty and embarks on an investigation, helped by the two men.

Meanwhile, the latest villains have been appearing in their own viewpoint sections - a whole group of them this time as there is a doctor who is administrator of the scientific department of Kingston University plus two graduate students, both geniuses it seems and both odd in their own way although the female student is a lot odder. And we discover way ahead of the three main characters what has been happening to disappearing bodies .....

I won't say much more about the plot as there are major spoilers otherwise. This story is a lot grimmer as Vicki takes blow after emotional blow and almost descends into a crackup, not helped by her inability to express any emotion apart from anger. I must admit to not really liking her as a character in this re-read of the series, and she seems to become more and more a caricature of herself as time goes on with constant breaking of household articles. Mike is a lot more sympathetic as a character, and near the end of the story shows his empathic and self sacrificing side - which turns out to be ironic, given the final resolution of the love triangle between him, Henry and Vicki. Henry is vulnerable here again as he was in volume 2, and has to rely on the other two to rescue him from a tight spot, and there is quite a high body count and plenty of action once the trio work out who is behind the body snatching.

Given my growing dislike of Vicki as a character I can only rate this at 3 stars. It would have made a good end to the series, although I did think on my original reading that the author could have tackled other traditional genre themes such as ghosts or the fae, but she did go on to write more books with the new character dynamic. I only have book 5 and having already read that, I don't think I shall want to track down the rest. ( )

siehe Blood Price

Da ich die Serie nicht weiterlesen wollte, habe ich den weiteren Band in diesem Sammelband nicht gelesen.

I love how Tanya Huff writes the perfect mix of humor and seriousness it is the best mix of dark and light. No matter what series of hers I read I find myself thoroughly enjoying it. The main character in this is a kick butt heroine and I love her. I was very sad several years ago that the tv series ended so quickly because Vicki is a great character. ( )

I'm not rating this one because I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I didn't like the zombie aspect of the scientific experiments—I can't pinpoint what, but something about that part of the story really rubbed me the wrong way and I found myself dreading reading those sections. Since I have never been a fan of the Henry-Vicki-Mike love triangle, there wasn't much keeping me reading, so I decided to not force the issue.

DNF @ 33%

I... just... wow. This went from being a mediocre series to pure muse abuse, throwing logic, sanity, and pre-existing characterizations under the bus. It's been a long time since I've told a book to go stick its head in a pig.

Glancing to the next book in line, this rots. I'm not willing to keep reading. ( )