Something Wicked

Investigative reporter Regan Cluny has been trying to get an interview with Charles Cunningham Nash for some time, but the reclusive philanthropist has been avoiding her. So now she's decided to take the bull by the horns and confront him face-to-face at his mysterious archaeological dig in New Mexico.

Before she gets there, however, she's attacked and left for dead by a motorcycle gang... of vampires. Not that she'll tell anyone about the vampires, though: who would believe her?

Nash would--seeing as how he's also a vampire, and the leader of the gang who attacked her is his long-time enemy. Being a vampire is one of the reasons for his secrecy. The other is that he's looking for a mystical healing spring in the hopes of curing his show more vampirism.

Nash rescues Regan, and they begin to fall in love, complicated by them each having a very big secret: Nash is a vampire, and Regan is dying of cancer. What makes it even more complex is that Regan's disease killed the vampire who bit her in the attack.

So, nice conflict: they're falling in love, but each is a serious danger to the other, even if they don't know it.

Something Wicked is one of those rare cases where the characters have secrets and I'm not wanting to whack them upside the head to just spill it already. Both Regan and Nash have very good reasons to keep their secrets, and Regan is unaware that hers could prove deadly to Nash.

There was a nice balance here between the romance and the action/suspense plot, and kudos to Catherine for not pulling her punches. The bad guy here is ruthless (although he has a human side as well), and he acts accordingly.

Kudos also for a slightly different take on the vampire mythology. The vampires in Something Wicked drink blood, avoid direct sunlight, and are near-immortal, but they're not super-powerful, nor do they shapeshift.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing--the setting in New Mexico (great memories there--3 months' worth of weekends with Carl before we got married) and the archaeological details, the secondary characters that became real, and the hair-raising suspense. I'll be looking for Catherine Mulvany's backlist, and her future books. show less