Prisoner of Midnight

Hard to believe that I've been reading this series for 30 years (since Those Who Hunt the Night was released in 1988)! I'm a huge fab of James and Lydia Asher, and Don Simon Ysidro is one of my all-time favorite vampires. Hambly's vampires are predators, and far more interesting to me than so many whiny emo modern vampires, This time out, Don Simon has been drugged, captured, and is being carried off to America by a nefarious businessman. Lydia, responding to his psychic calls for help that she received as dreams, is on the same ship, attempting to find and either rescue or kill him before he becomes a danger to others. Oh yes, it's WWI and the ship is in danger of being torpedoed as it makes it's way to America! Meanwhile, back in Paris, James is searching for information concerning the substance that has been used to subdue Don Simon, as well as the antidote. While not my favorite of the series, I did enjoy it immensely and am grateful to Severn House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the digital ARC.

1917 and Vampire Don Simon Ysidro has been kidnapped, drugged and enslaved by industrialist Spenser Cochran - who plans to use him as a weapon - and who are now on their way to America aboard a luxury liner.
James and Dr Lydia Asher have dreamt of the kidnap - dreams sent from the weak and dying Vampire. Lydia secures passage in the ship to rescue her friend whilst James seeks help from the ruling Vampire of Paris.
While crossing the Atlantic, children from 3rd class have been found murdered with puncture wounds on their necks and it looks like there's another Vampire on board.
Can Lydia solve the murders and save Don Simon?
Fabulous characters and lots of suspense, book 8 and it still feels fresh.

I fell in love with Don Simon Ysidro, Spanish Renaissance vampire, and James and Lydia Asher, sometimes friends and allies, consummate vampire hunters, with their first encounter in Those Who Hunt the Night, one of the best vampire stories ever. Hambly’s vampires are not nice. They are not sparkly. They are very definitely not safe. But they are compelling, and when, in 1917 and the heat of the first World War, Dr. Lydia Asher receives a coded distress call from Don Simon, she does not turn away. Theirs is a long and complicated history, and more is at stake than their friendship. If Don Simon has been taken captive by an agent of one of the Great Powers, his terrible powers could turn the tide of the war.

The story unfolds aboard a ship crossing the Atlantic, complete with revolutionaries riding belowdecks, an insanely ambitious American industrialist, Jewish refugees, and the unexpected inclusion of Lydia’s young daughter, whom she believed safe at home in the custody of one of her aunts. Oh yes, there are German submarines in these waters, and no ship is safe from their torpedoes.

One mysterious death after another stokes superstitious fears of a vampire aboard – and where is Don Simon? What hold does the industrialist, Cochrane, have over him, and how can Lydia break it? And what will Lydia have to do to prevent the introduction of a vampire to the fertile feeding grounds of America?

I finished the story, with its breathless climax, wanting to go back and read all the adventures back-to-back.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book but no one bribed me -- quite unnecessarily -- to praise it.