This one took me a lot longer to read than the previous novels, my interest wavered quite a bit and I ended up reading multiple books while trying to finish this. I think there were just too many new players on the board that I didn't connect with. The main story line which deals with Victor purifying Veldaren was great; watching him evolve in order to truly understand the dark belly of the city and take on the Bloodcrafts was intense! However, some villains were pretty pointless. Take Widow for instance, I just didn't see how she added to the story and while her big reveal was disturbing I felt like it was tacky writing aimed too directly at creating a creep factor.
I did like that we learned more about Zusa's past and saw the relationship she has with Alyssa evolve. While we have come to recognize these characters, Dalglish is still providing ample amount of character development and Nathaniel is beginning to take a bit of the spot light. I would like to hear more about him in future novels.
I do have to say that the end really brought everything together and made me anticipate the next book as new alliances formed out of not necessarily desperation, but close to it. Hopefully the next will be better and more inline with the previous books. ( )