Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Carrie Vaughn
Aspect, Nov 2005, $6.99
ISBN: 0446616419

In Denver, Kitty Norville hosts the Midnight Hour show at KNOB radio. Tired of inane 90's retro music she asks her callers if they believe in vampires and werewolves. Shockingly she gets a bunch of callers with some providing profound comments or questions. Kitty responds sometimes tongue in cheek and others seriously quoting Milton. Two months later, Kitty's once a week show is a monster hit and about to go into syndication. Six months later the show is on 62 stations.

While on the air, Cormac the bounty hunter calls saying he has been hired to kill her. She stays on the air to persuade him to reconsider as they are being used by a mutual enemy and she admits to being a werewolf. When the police arrive too quickly, he offers Kitty a deal to let her live if she does not press charges. Detective Harden is irritated, but cannot do anything about it. Not long afterward Harden asks Kitty to look at a corpse, which she does. Kitty sniffs and realizes a rogue werewolf has killed a teenage prostitute. Further murders occur by this rogue with Kitty working with Cormac and Harden trying to solve the case.

Though everyone accepts Kitty is a werewolf without blinking once she comes out of the closet, the heroine is a terrific protagonist and holds the tongue in cheek supernatural police procedural together. Like the radio audience, readers will believe that vampires and werewolves reside amongst humans. The story line is action-packed (pun intended) yet Kitty and several other key players come across as fully dimensional whether they are shapeshifters, bloodsuckers, purebred humans, or hunters. Carrie Vaughn provides a terrific tale starring the adviser to the paranormal crowd.

Harriet Klausner