He’s being so accommodating that I really only have two options: climb off my high horse, or ride it straight out of here. I choose the latter, because it’s a long way down.
We all know how much I love vampires, so a vampire detective story was irresistible to me. Add in a literal disaster bi main character and I was sold. And it turned out that this book was laugh out loud hilarious, so I’m so glad I got my hands on it.
Rating: 4 stars!
Thanks to Josie for sending me a review copy of this book, it hasn’t affected my honest review!
Trigger Warnings: blood, vampire-typical consent issues and memory-fuckery, murder, heavy drinking, non-consensual drug use.
The plot:
If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective.
Just maybe not this one.
It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.
When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.
To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. As long as she can keep her cool, Drake will point her to the ringleaders, she’ll find the murderer and no one else will have to die.
What did I think?
I’m going to talk about the elephant in the room first. This book features a lovely bisexual love triangle! Killian, Jack and Tabitha! And for the first time in my life, I ship the m/f couple more than the f/f??? Who have I become, honestly. In my defense, sapphic friends, I want Tabitha to get a lovely girlfriend and live happily ever after because I adore her. I just think that Jack and Killian are both garbage idiots who deserve each other. It should come as no surprise that I adored the nemesis thing going on with Jack and Killian. After finishing May Day I read the short story prequel, Killian’s Dead, and that fleshed out their complicated relationship even more. I just loved every scene with both of them. The tangled mess of antagonism and attraction is sheer perfection to me, and Jack Valentine is hilarious at the best of times, and on her best game when it comes to sassing Killian.
I actually loved most of the characters in this book. There’s a really strong cast of supporting characters in the Seekers (the team of vampire detectives) and I love all of them. Especially Cam, who is a marshmallow to be protected. And the morals of the group are definitely on a very slidey scale, which made them really fun to read about. In Silver society, there’s the law and The Law. Breaking human laws don’t matter at all, but if you break Silver law, there are Consequences. It made for a much more interesting group of detectives than most books about human detectives, that’s for sure! The Silver society in general was really interesting, and this is my first book in the Silverse but I know I’m definitely going to pick up more when I can – the urban vampire setting is just perfect for me!
The mystery aspect of this book was really well executed. There were enough hints and bits of evidence for me to start putting things together, and I felt really engaged with the way that Jack started to uncover the truth. It took me a couple of goes to get started on this book, but once I was into the meat of the murder investigation, I was utterly absorbed. Not that I managed to guess things correctly until Jack did – but that’s why I’m not a Seeker!
I’m honestly a little bit devastated I don’t already have the sequel to this one in my hands, especially with that ending! The book wraps up perfectly for the genre, with the main mystery solved, but the threads left open for the next book have me a little bit feral with excitement.
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