Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine

[slowfox]

Book III of the Morganville Vampires series, and it's a definite return to form for Claire, Michael, Eve and Shane as they contend with the various human and vampire opponents arrayed against them in the vampire capital of Texas, Morganville.

As I've mentioned before, I wasn't terribly taken with Book II, partly because Claire seemed to be slightly out of character - not the meek thing she'd been previously, and it didn't quite gel. In this instalment, the Claire from the first book seems a little more recognisable... and the plot's a lot more enjoyable too.

Claire's intelligence gets to play a starring role in this one, as she's sent to be tutored by one of the older vampires in town, working on a ... special project. This is all done at Amelie's bidding, naturally, but Claire has little idea how much of an expendable she is in the scheme of things...

That said, both Monica and Oliver separately observe that Claire is no longer a 'nobody' in Morganville - having become Amelie's pet, she's most definitely a player in the scheme of things.

Anyway, Claire puts herself in harm's way (no surprise there) in following Amelie's orders (no surpise there, either), but what's also apparent is that there's a definite blurring of the boundaries between Human=Good/Vampire=Bad going on in Claire's head (we have at least three good vamps, now, and whilst Monica is still a bitch, there was at least slightly less bullying (admittedly this is basically because Monica's trying to find herself some bargaining power). Even Oliver is starting to come across slightly more sympathetically.

The ending queues you up perfectly for book IV, so I'm hoping to make a start on that somewhen.

All in all, an enjoyable read, this one, and definitely makes up for the dip in form of Book II.