A Stroke of Midnight, Laurell K. Hamilton

I was left with a feeling of wanting more after reading Seduced by Moonlight. I wanted the question of Merry's mortality. Which, I got no answers for. Although what develops out of this book is a portrayal of her new and ever growing powers.

What starts as the main theme of the book, a double homicide including a brownie and a human inside the slithen, becomes almost obsolete by the end. The homicide was reminiscent of old school Anita Blake with Merry attempting to solve the murder. But Andais ends up with the culprit after torturing him. We do not as the reader discover how Andais knows what noble to torture. We don't learn of all the events that went on after Merry passed out up until she wakes up in the Queen's bed. The only thing we gain from this crime is we learn that faery was so weakened by Taranis' and Andais' individual rulings that it did not even take cold iron to a fey's heart to kill them, and this fact is almost stated as an afterthought in the last few pages of the book.

Although it only lasted for a few pages, I was incredibly dismayed when I had thought that Galen had died. Though I am not rooting for Galen for kingship, I love his character. 

This book did not hold up to what is classically Laurell. The ending is typically the icing on the cake. And you have to struggle through the middle sections of the book. This however had a great build up in the middle and trickled off with no killer ending, just the scene with Onilwyn stating a fact we had already learned in the beginning of the book.

All in all, I think this is one of those books in the middle of series that we must endear in order to press on into the good stuff.