Kitty Steals the Show

Kitty Steals the Show (2012) Carrie Vaughn

Kitty, Ben, and Cormac are all headed to London. Kitty and Ben to attend the First International Conference on Paranatural Studies, Cormac to look for Amelia’s family.

Luckily, Kitty has friends across the ocean, including Emma, Allete’s great(s)-granddaughter, and Tyler and Schumacher representing the US government’s interests.

We also meet some very interesting people, and get a look at how Old World vampires treat others (ie, not very well).

One of the characters I especially liked was Ned, the Master of London.

“Of all the secrets I could keep, the ones about myself are the least useful.”

He was a window into an amazing time and place— and I didn’t know where to start. So I teared up and tried to wave away the burst of emotion. Everyone was staring at me and all I really wanted to do was cry from the wonder of it all.

“Is she okay?” Emma asked Ben.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never seen her like this.”

“I get this reaction quite a lot,” Ned said cheerfully. I imagined it was one of the reasons he didn’t bother keeping his identity secret— he’d been a celebrity his whole life, why stop just because he’d become a vampire?

I think that is one of the things I like best about this series–is coming back to the idea that if vampires have lived for centuries, then they have to have met at least some important historical figures–and they certainly can tell us more about the times in which they lived than any history book.

“I will have Shakespeare, Marlowe, and John Donne scholars camped on my doorstep for the rest of eternity. Do you have any idea what I’d go through?”

I also liked the bits about the conference and just how technical and geeky it might get.

When the lecture opened with a physics joke—“ Vampires: alive or dead? Does Schrödinger’s cat walk among us?”— I knew I was in trouble.

Otherwise, the story is roaring along with more machinations by Roman and/or his people.
Rating: 7.5/10

Published by Tor

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