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Los Angeles is going through a turbulent time. No longer the City of Angels, it’s a war zone with humans on one side and Vampires (fangs) and Werewolves (furs) on the other. Humans have won the first offensive and now a tentative peace reigns on all sides.
There’s no love lost between fangs and furs either but in the face of a common enemy, uneasy negotiations are taking place. All this is threatened when an increasing number of fangs and furs are found brutally murdered with no clear suspect in sight and no solution either as the human police determinedly turning a blind eye towards what seem to be inter-racial killings.
Michael, the Vampire Vendix (executioner) and Keeli Maddox, heir of the Werewolf leader as well as the Maddox madness, are the only two willing to suspend their mutual differences and prejudices to uncover the truth. Together they work against time and the fiery lust that soon sparks into life between them soon transforms into a surprising love.
With the serial killer after them and facing constant attacks from their own outraged brethren who’re against their unique togetherness, bloodshed is the order of the day as these two struggle for survival, not just of their lives and their love, but also that of their own races.
Ms. Liu bowled over readers with her very first book “Tiger Eye”. In this second book, she takes off in a completely new direction, into a richly imagined, somewhat futuristic world where it’s humans against vampires, werewolves and other creatures. Liu’s talent not only lies in characterization, but also in creating intense and unusual romances between unlikely protagonists - it was a shapeshifter and a swordmaker in ‘Tiger Eye’, and it’s a vampire and a werewolf in this one. Not only is the concept fascinating to readers, but also Liu utilizes this very novelty to cause problems in the path of their true love in the form of intense opposition from and amid their individual races.
Even more interesting than the battles Michael and Keeli fight against others in the course of justice, are their individual struggles with their own internal demons. With such tortured protagonists and of such violently opposed races, action and blood shedding is inevitable and plentiful but integral to the plot. There’s also some original macabre humor – vampires who can’t bear the sun, live glamorous lives on the surface, while werewolves, who’re affected by the moon, have to live underground like rats; there’s a vampire blood bar called ‘The Bloody Pulp’ and a werewolf newspaper equally appropriately titled ‘Howl’, etc. Blending action, romance, heartbreak, suspense and bloodshed with equal aplomb, rising author Marjorie M. Liu’s books are rapidly becoming a must-buy and this book is no exception.
Reviewed by Rashmi Srinivas
for The Road to Romance
July 29, 2005
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