[REVIEW] Night Life – Caitlin Kittredge

Caitlin Kittredge
Night Life (Nocturne City, Book 1)
Macmillan St. Martin’s (US: 4th March 2008); Hachette Gollancz (UK: 10th June 2010; AU: August 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

A ritualistic serial killer is on the loose in Nocturne City, and Detective Luna Wilder teams up with a fellow werewolf to investigate…

Yep, a werewolf named Luna Wilder, which is preposterous mostly because no character finds the link funny/strange. That would have been too obvious.

The plot relies a lot on stereotypes – Luna’s the only female in the PD, and there’s a misogynist/sexist who constantly riles her, and the captain’s corrupt, and so are the district attorney and his staff…

When Luna is a competent employee conducting her investigation legally, such as meeting with a university professor, she’s actually quite affable. As for the rest of the time…Look, I understand bitchiness. It can be particularly vicious at certain times of the moon cycle. But the rule of basic manners: don’t bitch to those who are nice to you. Seriously. Luna’s lucky enough to have a supportive cousin and lieutenant, but she’s totally rude to them both. She even dares to call Sunny a bitch – the hypocrisy, it burns! Luna claims that people don’t like her because she’s a werewolf, but I suspect they don’t like her endless bitching.

Dmitri Sandovsky is a former (?) drug-dealing pimp, though he claims he only did that to make some money when he first came to the country from Ukraine. Normally I love international characters, but Dmitri’s back story is more of a plot point than who he is. He doesn’t even swear in the mother language, so I felt somewhat bereft.

The pack (and out of it) hierarchy doesn’t seem entirely logical. Luna is Insoli, a wolf without a pack, yet she manages to dominate pack wolves in their territory. Huh?

My comments here may suggest that I don’t like this book, but I actually do, and quite a lot. For better or worse, Night Life is a roaring page-turner that should give book clubs much to discuss.

Squick spoiler: Luna’s lover phases to a wolfish form during coitus. So…I think that counts as bestiality. Just thought you should know.

August 2010 Releases

Done with July 2010 Releases? Here are August 2010 Releases. To see further into the future, check Reading Wishlist.

June 2010 Releases

Done with May 2010 Releases? Here are June 2010 Releases. To look further into the future, check Reading Wishlist.

[COVER ART] Caitlin Kittredge’s NIGHT LIFE (UK)

UK cover for Caitlin Kittredge’s Night Life.

Buy (UK) Buy (Worldwide)

Gemma Malley’s THE RETURNERS; UK Sales for Jeaniene Frost & Caitlin Kittredge

You may remember me fangirlying over Gemma Malley’s The Declaration and The Resistance, which are further evidence that YA futuristic should be the hottest genre around. Good news is that a third novel is due out early 2010:

Gemma Malley
The Returners
Bloomsbury (UK: 1st February 2010)
Buy (UK)
From here:
What happens when your past begins to catch up with you and you don’t like what you see? Will Hodge’s life is a tragic disaster. His mother is dead. He has no friends. And now he thinks he is being followed by a strange group of people who tell him they know him. But Will cannot remember them at all…that is, at first he can’t. And when he does, he doesn’t much like what he can remember. While he is struggling with these unsettling memories, he learns that his past is a lot deeper than that of many other people. He must find out if he is strong enough to handle the implications of this and to break the powerful hold that his history seems to have on him.

Also, Gollancz has bought UK (and hopefully Australian) rights for Jeaniene Frost’s first three Night Huntress novels and Caitlin Kittredge’s first three Nocturne City novels. Look for them in 2010:

Jeaniene Frost: Halfway to the Grave (14th January 2010); One Foot in the Grave (11th February 2010); At Grave’s End (11th March 2010)
Caitlin Kittredge: Night Life (10th June 2010); Pure Blood (8th July 2010); Second Skin (12th August 2010)

Happy Birthday, Caitlin Kittredge

It’s 18th September – Caitlin Kittredge’s birthday, and thus a good time for gratuitous promo 😉 Give the gift of royalties by buying My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon (of which Miz Caitlin is a contributor), Night Life, Pure Blood and pre-order Second Skin.

Cat with Books

Kristopher Reisz once pondered if Manny’s facial expressions demonstrate his feelings towards the books he’s photographed with. So let’s analyse photos taken this afternoon:

Jennifer Armintrout’s Ashes to Ashes: Cutest photo of the bunch – I think he likes Dr Carrie.

Yasmine Galenorn’s Darkling: I’d forgotten I’d photographed him with this before, but this one’s better.

Adrian Phoenix’s A Rush of Wings: One eye open, one eye shut – yes, my cat looks deranged.

Jennifer Rardin’s Biting the Bullet: Doesn’t look impressed, but he’s Australian – what would he know about guns? 😉

Caitlin Kittredge’s Night Life: Disdainful – might be wondering why a cat owner wrote about a werewolf instead of werecats.

Keri Arthur’s The Darkest Kiss: Photo session over – back to naptime.

© 2008 by Tez Miller