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Kitty and The Midnight Hour

Carrie Vaughn

259 pages           Published 2005

Synopsis

Kitty Norville is a late night DJ for a Denver radio station and also happens to be a werewolf.  She is supposed to run a late night variety format music show but one night she starts a phone in on the subject of the supernatural and her show turns into a talk show.  The radio station bosses love her new ratings increasing all-talk format and want her to continue, so ‘The Midnight Hour’ a late-night advice show for the supernatural community is born.

Each week she continues to listen to the supernatural woes of her listeners (depressed vampires, lonely werewolves and disillusioned human servants.) Dispensing pop psychology and advice to them makes her show a huge hit but not everyone is happy about it.

Her werewolf pack thinks that she is bringing too much attention to the werewolves and wants her to stop doing the show.  The head of the local vampire family wants Kitty to quit because he thinks his vampires should take their problems to him not phone in to late-night radio for advice. 

Kitty’s problems (and show ratings) escalate when Cormac, a werewolf hunter turns up to kill her on air.  With some fast talking she manages to save her skin but that is not the end to her problems.

There have been a spate of human women mauled to death, the police have been listening to Kitty’s show and are now thinking werewolf rather than mad serial killer.  Kitty is also involved in dominance struggles within her pack too.  All she wanted to do was make some entertaining radio and maybe help some people (or vampires, werewolves and witches) but now she must fight not only for her radio show but for her life.

The Review

I liked this book a lot. I thought it was a really good debut novel and a fine introduction for the reader into the world of Kitty (talk radio, werewolves and things that go bump in the night.) 

Kitty exists in a somewhat strange world where the supernatural exists, is scientifically documented but is largely discredited and discounted by the general human population.  (Maybe the people have that whole Sunnydale denial thing going on?)  Anyway, in Kitty’s world supernatural really exists and people whose lives or deaths have been affected by it need to talk about their problems just like anyone else. 

I think that the talk show segments of the narrative are the strongest parts of the book and are what gives Kitty and The Midnight Hour its originality.  The character of Kitty is well written too, so she seems complex and realistic with a warm human side that you can’t help but like.

This book has several separate ideas and plot lines in it, werewolf pack struggles, mauled murdered women, possible government conspiracy plus the mysterious Elijah Smith and his Church of the Pure Faith.  Some of the plot lines are concluded in this story while others have not been fully explored.  This kind of makes Kitty and The Midnight Hour feel a little unfinished, like this story has set the stage for the future adventures of Kitty.  Hopefully these plot lines will be explored in more detail in later books.

Ultimately, Kitty and The Midnight Hour is an entertaining and fun read.  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books with supernatural themes, strong female lead characters, some mystery and a little romance. Hummm…my favourite kind of book in fact!

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