This is, obviously, the sequel to Glass Houses, the first book of the Morganville Vampires series, by Rachel Caine. (Book 3 was out recently, and book 4 is in the publishing queue. She also has written the Weather Wardens series, of which I reviewed books 1 and 2 here and here.) While I enjoyed this book more than the last one, I’m going to tell you one random aside before the plot. She stole a line from Laurell K. Hamilton in this book: “Still, she could call Amelie. But that was a little like arming a nuclear weapon to take care of an ant problem.” Anita, in The Laughing Corpse (book 2) took Jean-Claude as backup to the Tenderloin (icky hooker district). As she said, taking the Master of the City down to keep pimps away from her was a little like using a thermonuclear device to kill ants. However, that’s a bit superficial.

Book 2 picks up exactly where book 1 left off. Literally. I mentioned that book 1 ended with a cliffhanger; book 2 starts as if everyone froze at the end of book 1 and just sat around waiting for their cues. I’ll try to give away the least amount of plot possible, but it’s probably obvious to those of you who are reading this that the main characters are about to get in trouble with the vampires and Monica (the big bad Texas blonde) again. The conflict becomes a little more complicated this time, throwing in a biker gang of vampire hunters and two warring factions of vampires.

The character development in this book is much more extensive; I know that’s mostly due to the fact that this is the second book in the series. Claire, the main character, gains some backbone and other traits that make her a bit rounder. In book 1, she was borderline TSTL (Too Stupid To Live), other than her genius IQ, but she learns some street smarts that make me understand why she isn’t dead. Vampires, including ones we met in the last book, become more interesting: they aren’t necessarily all bad. As a matter of fact, they’re just as complicated as human beings. There’s a new character, a vampire, introduced, who’s awfully interesting and quite a bit unlike other vampires in the story. Humans turn out to be bad guys, at least sometimes, and not just the ones who are completely in league with the vampires.

I prefer things, in general, a little less black and white, and this book provided more depth and less clear-cut morality than book 1. Even Monica, who is generally a spoiled-rotten, moderately evil Entitlement Bitch, gains personality facets. Making vampires less evil isn’t difficult; making us feel sympathetic for the Paris Hilton of Morganville takes a little more work. Caine managed to work that in between fast-moving action scenes and the occasional perhaps PG love scene.

Unfortunately, this book ends with a cliffhanger, too. I can’t wait until I get my hands on a copy of book 3, although I suspect it’ll end with a cliffhanger as well. (All right, well, I’ve already read it, and the review’s coming next week.) I definitely thought The Dead Girls’ Dance was better than Glass Houses, but I’m fairly certain that reading book 2 without reading book 1 would be a mistake. The Dead Girls’ Dance gets 4/5 stars.