Review: Love this new voice in UF - great heroine, complex and fast moving-story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 28, 2011
Vampire Council assassin (or bounty hunter, as she likes to be called) Secret McQueen's days of hiding out in Canada from her latest assignment are brought to an end when a trio of unlikely allies conspire to drag her back to New York. The Council's patience with her has run out and Sig, the head and the one member who is usually her obvious supporter, is on her doorstep taking a very personal interest in her completion of this particular order to kill her mentor, Holden Chancery. Her own gut instinct, what she knows about Holden and something about the way Sig's acting convinces Secret that not only can't she follow her orders but she has to find out what he's accused of and prove him innocent.When Secret left New York, she wasn't just leaving behind the Council job, she was running away from the complications of her bonds with werewolves Desmond and Lucas. Now that she's back, she has to face the fact that she left them holding a mess - not only did they just learn she had a vampire half, she inadvertently caused a power void in Lucas' pack and as Desmond's lover, she hurt him deeply with what he saw as a desertion of a mate. Her reunion with Lucas is prickly - he's not the same man he was when she left - but she and Desmond manage to patch things up horizontally pretty well until Secret starts getting flashes in her head of Holden while having happy times with him.Holden is very interested in getting in touch with Secret, and he's doing it through their warden/ward bond. He knows she's been assigned to kill him and not only wants to stop her but expects her to investigate, especially when he hears about Sig's interest. With Holden, Lucas, Desmond and Sig all dogging her heels and wanting something from her, she's a busy woman. She has to run down clues, evade the Council, deal with Holden popping in and out of her head and apartment, handle not one but two werewolves who expect her to make a commitment to them and handle her own new ward, the bubbly, impulsive and slightly ditzy Brigit. Oh, and there are some really nasty vampires and their servants who want her dead - badly.I liked Something Secret This Way Comes but I had some doubts about where some plot threads were going and the purpose of some characters. I may not know where things are ultimately going, but a few books in, I think I have a better idea of who these characters are and I am seriously enjoying this series. Secret is fast becoming one of my favorite UF heroines.For the first time it seems, Secret is in the position of having to run an investigation on one of her assassination orders rather than just going at it with her trusty gun or katana. Without her usual resources of Keaty or Holden, she's stuck depending on people she doesn't know and ferreting out information until she has something to take to Sig and Holden. Of course there are elements who don't want her to save Holden, who would be happy for him to just take the fall for whatever it is the Council thinks he's done. There's a really impressive layering of motives, hints of history between characters and definite reactions to Secret that will carry over even beyond into the next book when it's discovered who's behind the treachery.The way this story layers in people and plot pieces from past stories and the other books really strengthened this one for me. I love the voice the author's given Secret, the world of the Vampire Council and the glimpses of Lucas' pack that we're beginning to get. The villains are very scary but Secret needs to watch herself around the nice guys too - it makes me wonder what on earth is next for this woman and how soon I'll get to read about it.  The whole series is a win for me.  While this doesn't end on a cliffhanger, it ends on a big bang - I really feel sorry for the things Dean is putting Secret through.