Bryan Smith's follow up to his House of Blood novel which I've reviewed previously follows in the path of it's predecessor. This novel continues the story of the House of Blood and the rise it's tormentors that thrive on the agony and torture of innocents. Again we follow a few characters that we first saw in House of Blood and eventually defeated the "Master" and escaped the torturous world he created. We have a new "Mistress" which arises to recreate the world that was destroyed when the "Master" fell, the victims that escaped trying to recover and move on with their lives and a new mysterious "Order of the Dragon".

Overall, not a bad follow up and I blew through this very quickly, but there are problems with the book that seem to be systemic in Smith's novels (though he does seem to be improving as an author.) His novels tend be more like disjointed scenes that are pulled together to form a very loose plot that moves forward to an ending that, at least in this case, seems to be an unfulfilled climax that is there just because we've reached a certain word count. One complaint that I have that I've heard others agree with as well is we get an author that uses slang in his narration of the story in ways that I think should be reserved for his characters dialog. Just seems sloppy and somewhat juvenile. Not expecting Shakespeare here, but perhaps a higher level of narration that what we are getting.

Having said that, if you enjoy 'B' style movies, then this novel may fit well and you can enjoy an afternoon of reading with this one. There's a story in there that while it seems a bit unfulfilled, still presents us with a worthwhile quick read. ( )