Kitty Norville is the late-night radio host of the popular call-in show The Midnight Hour, which is an appropriate name given she’s a werewolf. A celebrity one at that, since she publicly came out of the closet in Kitty and The Midnight Hour. Kitty has a big mouth, and such a supernatural declaration live on the air wreaked havoc in her life, and ended with her to leaving her Denver home -- and her pack -- behind.

Now a rogue wolf, Kitty prefers keeping a low visual profile, roaming from city to city with her radio show, and never much in the same place twice. But her past is about to catch up with her when the U.S. Senate subpoenas her to appear before a special hearing on the continued funding of Dr. Paul Flemming’s Center for the Study of Paranatural Biology.

Leading this investigative committee is Senator Duke -- a foaming-at-the-mouth, bible-thumping maniac hell bent on exposing Kitty as a monster. Add one scum reporter, Kitty’s lawyer, Ben, a vampire hunter named Cormac, a sexy shape-shifting jaguar, the vampire mistress of Washington DC, and the DOD? If you think politics is cuttroat now, wait until you get a load of what Duke and Flemming have planned for Kitty.

I spend a majority of my time reading anything from this genre, and it seems like there’s always a literary one-upmanship as new authors put their own spin on vampire and werewolves…sometimes with dismal results. This is not the case.

The characters are full of life and sharp humor, and the plot is thick enough to sink your teeth into without getting too overwrought and mired in politics. Kitty and the Midnight Hour introduced us to the cast, but there is so much more meat on the bones in the sequel. Ben has a bit of an alter ego to match his button-down lawyerly image. Cormac has an obvious crush on Kitty (nevermind that he pays his bills knocking off her kind.) Luis the shape-shifting jaguar is the perfect accoutrement, oozing sex and charm to steam up Kitty’s life. And Senator Duke? I’m not sure whom Ms. Vaughn had in mind as her basis for this character -- or if she simply made him up -- but I had strange visions of Arlen Specter dancing in my head.

And since Kitty is a radio host, the books even come with their own playlists at the beginning. That’s a brilliant bit of imagination there…and saves me the trouble of digging through my CD collection for a soundtrack.

The carry-over between the first and second novel is seamless and as an added bonus, there’s a short story called “Kitty and the Band,” along with a teaser from the third. Unfair, since it promises to be even better than its predecessors.

Carrie Vaughn is a real gem, and she’s definitely on my playlist.
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Mass Market Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: Warner Books (July 1, 2006)
ISBN: 0446616427
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