This book opens with Leo continuing his usual song and dance with the NYPD. He's gotten somewhat sloppy taunting Detective Castillo and she comes close to arresting him. Unfortunately, Leo still has the benefit of vampirism as well as an incredibly effective lawyer to keep him out of a sunlit jail cell. Unfortunately, Leo's actions have made him obvious to a group with less scruples than the police. Which is sadly a pretty damning statement these days. Leo is scooped up by the Federal government and involuntarily recruited into their version of the supernatural Suicide Squad. Joining him is his sire, Leslie, who has no loyalty to the rest of the vampire race but will gladly sell them all to preserve herself.
I was a little bit offput by the premise to begin with as I much preferred the gritty noir storyline of the previous book to the idea of sending Leo off into the desert to fight a renegade undead military squad. Thankfully, this is only part of the book and we quickly see Leo do his best to try to turn the tables on his captors as well as deal with the government knowing about the undead. Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised that the book wasn't a cat and mouse game between Leo 's team versus the undead SEALs.
My favorite character from the book is definitely Leslie and I wish she'd played a bigger role in the story. Leo blames her for the whole vampire thing but it's clear most of his mistakes are his and his alone. Leslie adds some desperately needed female energy to the cast since Katherine, Leo's girl, doesn't have much personality beyond supporting Leo. Still, Leslie's playful evil provides a nice contrast to Leo and watching their mutual love of backstabbing as well as poor life choices is a treat.
I have to admit I like when people mix vampires and government conspiracy. The Men in Black are a traditional part of urban fantasy mythology. Here, the government is keeping itself compartmentalized to avoid a panic among the public. This is as good an excuse as most to keep the supernatural secret and works well for explaining why our heroes are only now dealing with a covert agency. We also get a bit more insight into how the vampire enclaves work, giving a sense on how they keep the secret of the undead, well, secret. Hint: it's mostly cash.
I was very interested in the efforts of Agent Snow and Detective Castillo this time around. Agent Snow underestimates how dangerous his vampire "assets" are but manages to put up the kind of attitude that makes you think he knows what he's doing. I like Detective Castillo's dogged determination to take down Leo and kind of wish she was his love interest instead of the werewolf Katherine. Leo underestimates humans and it's a weakness that they take advantage of, even though we'll have to wait until the next book to see how badly he's screwed up here.
The pace is fast, entertaining, and full of fun twists. Leo isn't always likable and some of his comments reach the point of wanting to punch him in the face. Despite this, I enjoyed following him on his adventure across three continents. He will always be someone that I appreciate most when he's stalking humans in the Big Apple, though.
