(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Vampires, werewolves, magi and worse--the Others have joined the mortal world, and there's no turning back now...
As a New York P.I. and Other specialist, Shiarra Waynest has been in plenty of trouble before. But waking up in a windowless room the prisoner of a vampire slave trader is a shock for anyone. Shia has her wits, her bravado, and a couple of used staples, so maybe she can take on a mansion full of serious evil.
But although she's desperate to escape, Shia needs some answers too. Her friends are in danger. There are betrayers and spies among them. And even if she can figure out what's going on and somehow get a message out, she's still a captive of the worst kind...

*2.5 stars*

This is the 6th book in the H&W Investigations series. I haven't read any of the previous novels - and I am not sure whether that has affected by review or not.

It took me a little bit to discover what has been going on in the previous books, who the characters were and what their relationships were to each other. Why was Shia locked up? Why was she terrified of Max? Who are The Others? Why does nothing really happen for the first half of the book?

Firstly, let me say I didn't hate this book - there just wasn't a lot at the start of the book to make me connect to the ongoing story. I felt really disconnected from the story, like it was a special club you needed to be in on from the start to know what was happening. That was disappointing but I did keep trying, regardless...

For the 6th book of the series, I would have expected more than "Shia tries to escape, then Max finds out and punishes her" for about 150 pages. That got old pretty quickly. The story didn't go anywhere for ages but we did get to see the determination of Shia - and the "big bad guy" was done very well with Max. That was a positive.

The rest of the story was better than the first half. Once Shia escapes and realises that she needs to rescue her friends from being sold off as slaves to the vampires, the action does pick up and Shia comes into her own a little more. We get to learn more about her motivations (for those who haven't read any of the previous books) and learn a little more of the backstory as the story unfolds.

Would I read the previous books? Yes, I think I will give them a go at least.


Paul
ARH