Guest Review: Kitty Raises Hell

Kitty Raises Hell (Kitty Norville 6)
- Carrie Vaughn

Publisher: UK - Gollancz

Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.
Kitty and Ben flee The City That Never Sleeps, thinking they were finished with the dangers there, but the sadistic cult of lycanthropes and their vampire priestess have laid a curse on Kitty in revenge for her disrupting their rituals. Starting at the next full moon, danger and destruction the form of fire strikes Kitty and the pack of werewolves she's sworn to protect. She enlists the help of a group of TV paranormal investigators - one of whom has real psychic abilities - to help her get to the bottom of the curse that's been laid on her. Rick, the Master vampire of Denver, believes a deeper plot lies behind the curse, and he and Kitty argue about whether or not to accept the help of a professional demon hunter - and vampire - named Roman, who arrives a little too conveniently in the nick of time. Unable to rely on Rick, and unwilling to accept Roman's offer of help for a price, Kitty and her band of allies, including Vegas magician Odysseus Grant and Kitty's own radio audience, mount a trap for the supernatural being behind the curse, a destructive force summoned by the vengeful cult, a supernatural being that none of them ever thought to face.

So I’m back again, with another Mel-borrowed-book review, this time for the sixth installment in Carrie Vaughn’s werewolf-featuring UF ‘Kitty’ series – Kitty Raises Hell. These books star the eponymous Kitty, a werewolf pack-leader and DJ, who has fought her way through the series thus far from underdog to alpha, often using wit and guile over teeth and claws. She’s a feisty, often smart-mouthed heroine, who describes the sensations attributed to life as a werewolf better than any I’ve read.

Kitty Raises Hell follows straight on from the Vegas-based happenings in Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand, with our heroine and her pack truly beginning to experience the repercusions of angering a vampire priestess and her lycanthrope underlings. An invisible, but deadly force, preceeded by the smell of fire and brimstone, deals out death and destruction in its journey to its ultimate prize – Kitty herself. Throw in tv-show paranormal investigators, ghosts and a human stalker, and it’s another cover-to-cover read from Vaughn.

What I love most about these books, other than the wonderful insight into life as a werewolf, is the way that Kitty’s world has expanded. We, like Kitty, started off knowing only of werewolves and humans, but through what she has experienced first-hand, heard about during her radio show, and pondered in her ever-questioning mind, the world has expanded slowly, intriguingly, and wonderfully.

I’d recommend this series to all fantasy readers, but particularly those who enjoy Karen Macinerney's Urban Werewolf, 8 out of 10.