Lady in Black

Black Knight Chronicles Series, Book 8

De: John G. Hartness

Narrado por: Joe Hempel

Vigilante...check.

Killer vamp...check.

Undead serial murderer...check.

Enough alcohol to get Jimmy through this sh*tstorm? Doubtful.

Fists, fangs, and fury. It's all a matter of balance when Jimmy Black, Charlotte's Vampire Master of the City, is tasked with discovering why a mostly bloodless, decapitated body shows up in a dumpster. After a little sniffing around, Jimmy uncovers problems he didn't even know he had. Like a murderous vampire running loose in the city.

To keep the whole supernatural world a secret, Jimmy has to find the vigilante and stop them before the mundane world figures out that the monsters-under-the-bed are really living right next door. But the people the vigilante is killing are people who probably deserve it. So now Jimmy has to balance the safety of the city against the secrecy of the supernatural world. To maintain his leadership of that supernatural world, Jimmy is going to have to step up his game before it's "game over."

©2021 John G. Hartness (P)2021 Tantor

Heavy is the head which wears the crown.

This is a really fun series, turns pretty serious at times, but well written with great narration!

alittle light

good story good book as always but this one felt more like a fluff piece. it was your basic regurgitation of the previous six stories just with him finally killing Abby. the book just felt like it was missing something nonetheless still good read

Thrill ride!

Well, what can I say. Thrill ride with a revelation. The story is one of finding what works and clearly who is it really working for.

very disapointed

Apparently John Hartness feels like the world needs a book about protecting women beaters and pedophiles. i wont be reading any more of his work.

Well, that took a turn … Angel vibes

“When there’s no one else to turn to, you turn to whoever’s left.”
I’m not entirely sure how to rate this.

On the one hand, there’s a lot of rerun segments, where the characters summarize events from the series. There’s a few more King of the Hill segments, where yet again some Big Bad challenges Jimmy to a death duel (and the usual pattern where they cheat, but Jimmy wins). There’s a lot of time spent detailing the horrible crimes committed by men against women and children … and then detailing the poetic, but gruesome, ways those men were killed by a vigilante. There’s a lot of time speechifying, moralizing, and philosophizing about justice, leadership, and how the world works.
It was a dark turn for a series built on a geeky vampire brotherhood.

On the other hand, we finally get a villain with depth, true growth for Jimmy, Greg leveling up to Jedi leader status and the death of a major recurring character. This was a book I took more seriously than the pulpy ones before, which was great … except for the lack of the fun parts of the pulpy ones.

I guess my biggest issue is that the tone changed too drastically from the series. I’m not sure I actually bought the various changes in character personalities; there weren’t breadcrumbs in the prior books to make me think the twists made sense. It had me feeling like I did for the last two seasons of the TV show Angel … as if creative differences or something in the air changed the writing and used the story to tell an entirely different tale. And then the final scene teases a new book and another looming showdown … also like how Angel ended.

What?????

I have loved this series from the first, and eagerly listened to every installment. This last one, though. Who ends an 8 book series on a cliffhanger?? And who wants to read anything more from an author who does that? It feels like he said, I'm bored with writing this series and am not going to take the time to come up with another plot. Too bad for you, readers. Joe Hempel's performance, as usual, was excellent.