Mark A. Latham

THE LAST VIGILANT by Mark A. Latham is what you would get if you crossed Hercule Poirot with the Game of Thrones' Sandor "The Hound" Clegane. Marketed as a fantasy, to me, it is a political mystery set in a world with a few fantasy elements, and those don't come into play until the last third of the story. THE LAST VIGILANT was not at all what I expected, making it a welcome surprise and an enjoyable few hours spent reading.

The story centers around Holt Hawley, a grizzled but loyal, slightly show more lost soldier, akin to your grizzled and disgraced detective or, as I said, The Hound from GOT. He is very rough around the edges, having spent his entire adulthood in the military and haunted by past deeds that make him anathema to his men. He has few social graces, a limited supply of patience, an even shorter temper, and a strong sense of justice.

Through Hawley, we meet Enelda Drake, the Hercule Poirot of the story. Enelda is the last of the Vigilants, an order devoted to knowledge and long disbanded by the king. The Vigilants may appear to have special deductive powers, but they work through keen observational skills, a detailed understanding of human body language, and a seemingly unending memory capacity. She is equally rough around the edges but better attuned to playing the political game while keeping her cards completely hidden from everyone around her.

Although unaccustomed to being around others, Enelda agrees to accompany Hawley on his quest to find missing children and eventually uncovers a far-reaching plot involving angels and demons. The usual twists and tricks occur. Hawley gets beaten up a few times and remains cranky about all the secrets everyone is keeping, including his charge. Enelda doles out her knowledge piecemeal, sharing only what she deems necessary for certain characters to know. There is a little magic, a lot of swordfighting and punching, and the heroes save the day for now.

As far as mysteries go, THE LAST VIGILANT is decent. It never became clear to me where the plot was going, if only because Enelda does not share anything with Hawley, and we are as in the dark as he is. Every time Enelda shared one of her closely-guarded secrets, most of which were surprising, we learned a little more about the machinations at play and the core players. Again, Enelda is akin to Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes, observing and deducing without sharing until the end, for that one shining moment when she enlightens everyone with what she uncovered.

As far as fantasies go, it is a little weak. We have the typical misogynistic power system where women can no longer rule, fight, or pretty much do anything but raise children and keep house. We also have a corrupt police state that passes itself off as the New Vigilants, sworn to uphold the king's peace and collect taxes and tithes on his behalf. These Vigilants execute anyone suspected of witchcraft and disdain pretty much everyone not part of their ranks. In truth, the only practitioner of magic is Enelda, and hers is more of a communing with spirits rather than spellwork or practicing the craft.

THE LAST VIGILANT was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting so much of the story to revolve around the mystery of the missing children and the discovery of the power play, and I enjoyed those parts of the story. I love it when anyone uses their observational skills to discover secrets, so Enelda quickly endeared herself to me. As for Hawley, all you can do is pity him regarding his past and commiserate with his frustrations with Enelda's lack of forthcomingness.

While Mr. Latham intends for THE LAST VIGILANT to become a series, the story ends with one open plot line. This open plot line is something you find out about at the last minute, so there is no burning urge to find out what happens next. Instead, THE LAST VIGILANT reads more like a standalone novel with the potential for future stories if the author so desires. I liked THE LAST VIGILANT, but it was nothing more than a respite from all the high fantasy romance novels I've been reading lately. If Mr. Latham decides to publish another book with Hawley and Enelda, I won't go out of my way to read it, but I would do so if the opportunity arises. show less

Not a bad month, but by no means gold. A cool battle report saw Sauron win the Wars of the Ring, and some useful Stompa building tips pleased me. If you owned multiple Shadowswords you'd be getting some cool datasheets but surely the reward for owning multiple Shadowswords should be owning multiple Shadowswords!

What if count Dracula was actually a good guy? Not the grisly bloodsucker of grim horror tales, just an innocent man who was framed to cover up crimes committed not by supernatural foes but by very human villains. This is the premise behind “A Betrayal In Blood”, and it is an interesting one.

As we know Sherlock Holmes does not believe in the supernatural and when he begins digging into the “Dracula papers”, the documents chronicling the murderous creatures’ acts of terror, he show more starts noticing that plenty of things just do not make an awful lot of sense. So apparently Dracula is able to shape-shift into various animals, but for some reason he chooses not to use this power when he is in gravest danger under attack by his greatest enemies. Why did the count come to England at all and how did he choose his victims? And for that matter what really happened to the Demeter, the ship he arrived on? Why does the celebrated vampire-hunter Abraham Van Helsing pretend to be Dutch, when he is in fact German?

If you are a vampire aficionado and know Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula inside out then you will no doubt enjoy Mark A. Latham’s book very much. If however like me you are a bit rusty on vampire lore and it’s been a while since your last reading of Dracula you might get a bit confused now and then. So wait, who was Renfield again? What was the role of Lord Godalming? How did “The Crew Of Light” originally manage to defeat the master of darkness?

Nonetheless even if you do not know the precise answers to these and other questions there is still a lot to enjoy here; it might seem like a tale of gothic horror on the surface, but this is actually a real detective story, with some of the best bits occurring when Holmes and Watson investigate how it might have been possible for Van Helsing and his associates to fake the existence of vampires. They even staged the killing of a vampire at a cemetery by putting a stake through its heart. Sherlock Holmes demonstrates that this illusion can be achieved by relatively simple means.

If A Betrayal In Blood is a let-down ending with a whimper rather than a bang, it is because once you take the supernatural elements and even the part of the actual blood-sucking away from the Dracula story you are left with only an average series of crimes committed by villains who are not that interesting. Initially Holmes likens Professor Van Helsing to his arch nemesis Moriarty, but in the end he is only a pathetic old man not smart or menacing enough to be a worthwhile spoil for the great detective.

This is still a good solid novel that just lacks the ultimate excitement it promised on the cover. show less

The Last Vigilant was an entertaining fantasy novel, with an interesting mystery imbedded within in it, but I also felt like something, some tension, was a bit lacking. I am turning more and more to those murder mystery type books set in a fantasy world, probably because I am looking for something a little bit different than the usual fare that's out there. There was plenty of action, the characters were interesting, there was legend and lore, there was some magic, and I was starting to get show more a sense of the politcal structure of the world, but for whatever reason, the overall didn't quite seem to work.

Hawley and Enelda were both fascinating characters and I enjoyed their character arcs tremendously. And I think that is one of the problems as while these two were nicely developed, the secondary characters were just that, secondary. Hawley has quite a past and I think we learn only some of it in this book, which is fine, same with Enelda. I am content to wait to find out more. The two of them work together quite well and balance each other nicely. I enjoyed their banter as well as the lessons that Hawley learns while he is with her. Both of them managed to surprised me quite a bit as the story progressed.

This story is fantasy mystery, so Hawley and Enelda are tasked with searching for a missing child to prevent a war, but they discover so much more corruption in their search, something I love as I love politics. I pretty much listened to this in one sitting as it was entertaining, but I didn't feel like there was anything new in this book. However, there was definitely enough that intrigued me that I will continue with the second book when it is released. show less