Death's Mistress [Paperback]

A month has passed since the events of 'Midnight's Daughter' and the Cassie Palmer book 'Curse the Dawn', the interspecies war is still raging and Dory our occasionally insane dhampir heroine has been spending her time merrily dismembering unruly vampires at the request of Mircea as part of a special task force. Apart from feeling a little alone with her friend Claire away and Louis-Cesare missing looking for his kidnapped mistress things are calm enough for Dory but she soon finds herself in the midst of a convoluted murder mystery when a frightened Claire turns up, afraid for the life of her child and desperate to find the location of a stolen magical rune which will protect him. Determined to help her friend Dory quickly finds herself in procession of the one thing which may get it for her, a slightly dimwitted, and headless, vampire named Ray, who a long list of very powerful beings want to get their hands on. Queue lots of running, fighting, explosions, political unrest, murder, mystery, confusion, misunderstandings and vampires, lots and lots of vampires. As Dory puts it "It was going great until I cut his head off".

Chance has done well in using an interesting murder mystery to develop the story arc of the continued war and political unrest, as the vampire Senates attempt to deal with filling their ever growing amount of empty seats. There are some nice twists and developments in the second half and the book is driven nicely by the various mysteries, all surrounding the missing rune. Everyone has their own agenda, including Louis-Cesare, Mircea and the downright creepy Aesubrand who returns in this book and Dory herself. There are to two pretty good revelations, one I didn't see coming at all. The pacing could have been a little better towards the end but that said her writing is much improved with this instalment, there are some lovely passages and some of the scenes are her best yet from any novel; Louis-Cesare's and Dory's first scene together is great and the context of the word 'diddle' alone gets the book five stars, that scene is beyond laugh out loud funny and the subsequent scene with Mircea and Dory is lovely. All in all this is one hell of an exciting read.

All this is great but it is the way Chance writes her characters and develops them which really works for me; they all have their own flavour, secrets, back story and quirks. She manages to make even the minor one's interesting to me. What I find exceptionally good is how she portrays the different characters and species in her different series. The vamps are interesting in Cassie's books but it is in Dory's books that they really come alive and flourish (particularly Mircea), they appear very different; more emotional, vulnerable, multi-layered characters, they are not the often uncomprehending powerhouses found in Cassie's books. Cassie rarely seems to see beyond what they (including Mircea) wants her to see and know and even though Dory is often surprised in this book at various vamps behaviour and doesn't know if she can trust it, her narrative allows us to see behind their guises, whether through the many truly touching scenes she shares with - although she can't believe it - I suspect a genuinely loving and devoted Mircea. Or with her scenes with the often flustered and suspicious Marlowe (which I love), who seems to constantly be on the verge of a heart attack (not that he's alive). I could go on, there are so many big , interesting vampire characters here all of which I relished; Anthony the flamboyant European Consul needs a mention and there wasn't nearly enough of Radu's eccentricities. Here the masks slip, with entertaining results, even the consul has a breakdown.

As for Dory? I found her narrative as entertaining as ever. I just get her, she reads differently to the many other strong urban fantasy heroines out there, more real somehow. This has to do with the way in which she handles herself, she's very down to earth and just tries to do the best she can in whatever situation she gets in. She doesn't always makes the best decisions or read people that well and she has trouble letting people get close. But there is no aspect of her personality or powers which irritates or doesn't feel like it is believable or isn't nicely developed, she doesn't for instance just get new powers every now and again and her distrust is founded. The complication of the fey wine is still present and quietly develops her character in an unusual way with its interesting effects on Dory.

Louis-Cesare is also very much back with this book and plays a crucial role, he also grows as a character. Chance has a real talent for sprinkling her books with a love story that is believable, feels natural and develops well. I think Dory and Louis-Cesares's interactions and relationship is very well done...pretty amazing actually.

If you haven't read anything by Chance yet I wouldn't recommend starting with this book, you can begin with the first Dory book if the Cassie books don't appeal, Cassie and Dory are very different after all but all Chance's work contains the same exuberant madcap energy and eccentric storytelling. My recommended reading order of everything Chance has published all of which are set in same world would be:

'Touch the Dark' (Cassie book 1)
'Claimed by Shadow' (CB2)
'Embrace the Night' (CB3)
'Buying Trouble' (Claire short in 'On the Prowl' anthology)
'Midnight's Daughter' (Dory Book 1)
'Curse the Dawn' (CB4)
'Death's Mistress' (DB2)
'Day of the Dead' (Tomas Short, free on Chance's website)
'Rouge Elements' (Lia de Croissets short in 'Wolfsbane and Mistletoe' anthology)
'Vegas Odds' (Lia short in 'Strange Brew' anthology)
'Skin Deep' (Lia short in 'Inked' anthology)
Summer 2011 next Cassie

There is an infuriatingly huge wait till the next full length Cassie and Dory's will be after that but as you can see it looks like we are to be bribed with a series of free shorts which can be read in the 'freebie' section on Chance's website. There is one already available from Tomas' POV, given the important events of 'Day of the Dead' I had suspected that it would form a bridge between the first Dory book and this one but as it turns out it comes after this book but Tomas and Alejandro are mentiones a few times so prehaps we'll be seeing him soon? There's going also to be one's on Pritkin (oh yeah), Marlowe, Mircea and Francoise. Considering all the secrets her characters hold I'm looking forward to this!

Well I've babbled on but essentially these books are entertaining, well written, beautifully developed with interesting characters and touching romance. They lift my spirit, lightening my mood and make me excited about keeping on reading.

Ok so I'm no good at explaining plots in my reviews, especially tricky ones like this.
Basically, Deaths Mistress is freaking brilliant. The plot is fabulous and keeps you guessing, the characters are lovable as always and the main ones develop a lot, Dory is a first rate pratoganist,and the ending is shocking! Also i think I'm in love with Louis-Cesare - LOVE his entrance ;D
This book has been called an 'entertaining romp' on the back, so let me get one thing straight, karen Chance's writing deserves much higher praise than to be called a 'romp'. Her characters, way of writing - brilliant talent of writing action scenes - and plot are all seriously good, there's no denying she's an excellent writer.
In all I think I prefer this to Midnight's daughter, although I did miss Caedmon (can't spell it sorry) a bit. Mircea's charater develops a lot and it's kind of influencing my opinion of him in the Cassie Palmer series too now that I understand him more (I still don't know if I want him or pritkin to be with Cassie! - If you haven't already read the Cassie Palmer series by K.C what the hell are you doing?!!)
Ok so, if you read Midnight's daughter read this defo, if not read Midnight's daughter and then this. I seriously hope K.C brings a third Dory book out! I mean she can't just leave us with two! I'm dying here!
I just read on another review that the fifth Cassie Palmer book won't be out til 2011, I think I'll go insane waiting that long!

Hope this helped
Crazy Karen Chance fan x

Dory is back home in Brooklyn after the demise of her insane uncle Drac. Her quiet life doesn't last very long as Claire, the fairy princess, soon returns in need of help -- she wants Dory's aid in finding a magical Fey relic. Not only that, but Louis-Cesare is desperate to find his former mistress Christine. Working together (sort of) Dory and Louis-Cesare soon discover that the same master vampire Christine is bound to is also rumoured to be in possession of the ancient Fey relic. But when the master vampire turns up dead, they realise that there's more at stake than a missing mistress. Murder is afoot! Someone is killing vampire Senate members... which will affect them all.

Dory's kind of persona non grata in terms of this zany universe. Being a dhampir she's not really a part of either the supernatural community or the human world. Since she likes to kill vampires where possible, that alone makes her a kind of a pariah amongst them -- being a half breed certainly doesn't help. In the last book Dory accepted her father's invitation to work for him and we rejoin her here as she's taking care of some business.

This book was a lot of fun. As usual, it was a fast-paced frenzied adventure that left little room for lulls in the story. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't as laugh out loud funny as the first Dory book but I didn't really mind -- this story was more convoluted than in the first and had more ground to cover which left less room for insane hilarity (although there is plenty of humour). The colour and the humour still jumped off the page and Dory herself was an excellent protagonist having learned a bit from the previous book -- she seemed a little less 'in your face' and crazy than in 'Midnight's Daughter'.

My favourite thing about 'Death's Mistress' were the scenes between Dorina and Mircea; it lended the novel some gravitas and oddly touching emotion. I'm not Mircea's biggest fan, but I absolutely love him when he's around Dory. Some very surprising things come to light and I enjoyed all their banter and lively repartee. I laughed when Dory talked to Mircea on the phone, stone drunk. I find Mircea incredibly interesting when he's involved with his family -- that unflinching dedication to them is rather lovely. I can't wait to see how his and Dory's relationship will grow and how they handle the revelations from this book. The other relationsips were nice too: Dorina's friendship with Claire is adorable and I also enjoyed her interactions with Lois-Cesare. A new character, Ray, who she spent most of the book alternatively chasing or running away from huge explosions with, was funny in his utter lack of smarts. I hope he returns in future books.

The plot was quite complicated and managed to surprise me several times! It's basically a murder-mystery mixed up in the search for a magical rune. The naudiz rune specifically: another rune from the same set that Cassie gave to Pritkin and Mac in 'Claimed By Shadow'. Speaking of Cassie, there was some nice linking up between books here. Cassie gets a mention! I got more excited than the mention really warranted. I'm also pretty sure Mircea indirectly compared Louis-Cesare with Pritkin, in a negative way (he's talking about warrior men being rubbish romantic material). I think Mircea was transfering...

I love the Fey stuff! Aesubrand the fairy king of the Silvestri (I'm pretty sure I spelt that wrong) causes havoc, he's rather scary at times. Despite that, I think he's a little one dimensional -- he could really do with being given some layers. As it stands he's just evil with no shades of grey. I think seeing him fleshed out as a villain would do wonders. Kit Marlowe was back as well -- it's been a while since I read the first Dory book so I don't recall his presence in that one, but I'll definately be checking back because he and Dory were pretty funny together. I totally enjoyed all their scenes. Radu also returned but there wasn't nearly enough of his foppish elegance.

Overall, a great read! Apparently, Cassie book five might not be out until the summer of 2011! So, I kind of wish I hadn't rushed to read this book. Ye gads!