This is the first in an urban fantasy series, published by Ace Books. They were recommended in a generic “If you like X, you’ll like Y” situation: X was probably either Laurell K. Hamilton’s works, Kim Harrison’s works, or Kelley Armstrong. I think it’s fairly obvious that I like Kelley Armstrong’s works, and I’m a fan of Kim Harrison as well. I won’t comment on Laurell K. Hamilton.

Anyway, Anna Strong is a bounty hunter. No, that doesn’t mean she goes after people and kills them for the money involved; mostly she finds people who have broken their probation or jumped bail. She has a partner, David, who is much larger than she is, but rarely does it turn into a physical fight. If it does, she’s prepared; she kicks butt and takes names. However, one night they take on a bail-skipper who turns out to be a little too dangerous for them; he attacks Anna and turns her into a vampire. From there she learns that there’s a large underground network of vampires, including the chief of police, doctors, and other important local officials. She gains a mentor. However, someone still seems to be after her life.

I feel I should warn potential readers of this book that there is a rape scene very near the beginning. This certainly isn’t a warm and fuzzy vampire novel, and it’s not without other violence, but I was not expecting rape, especially not that near the beginning. The . . . interesting way it was treated also sort of gave me a bad taste about the rest of the book. I understand that Anna was turned into a vampire, and that causes strange changes in a person, but I’m never a fan of rape being treated in a possibly-sexy way. I would NOT recommend this book for anyone younger than perhaps sixteen, and possibly older than that. Sex is one thing, and violence another (and the book’s got both), but sex combined with violence is not something I like to give to younger readers.

Anna falls into a stereotype that’s very prevalent right now, the butt-kicking alpha female. I liked her, but there wasn’t that much to differentiate her from any other expensive-shoe-loving, dangerous-guy-loving (her boyfriend is a DEA agent), skinny athletic woman with everything. The minor characters were better, including the vampiric police chief and the emergency-room doctor-slash-vampire mentor. David, her bounty-hunting partner, was also a good minor character, and perhaps less of a stereotype than Anna herself. The vampires weren’t that out of the ordinary; the method for making a vampire perhaps involved a little too much sex mixed with the violence for my taste, but they still had to drink blood. The drinks weren’t very often, and they can feed off of other vampires, but I’ve seen both of those traits before.

The setting included a trip to a secluded location in Mexico, and a giant house with many secret rooms. The trip to Mexico was a little unusual, although not that much for a book set in San Diego. Chula Vista, the first location given in the book, is perhaps five minutes from the Mexican border. The house with the secret rooms and the giant basement, I enjoyed, but vampire houses are supposed to be huge (since vampires are always rich) and have secret rooms (so they can protect themselves from sunlight).

In short, there wasn’t anything terribly new about this book. I suppose if you aren’t nearly as sensitive about rape as I am (I’ve never found a rape joke funny) and you’re looking for another urban fantasy series to read, you might enjoy this. Since there are two other books (plus a fourth to be released later this year), it’s possible that future volumes could be much improved, but based on this one, I didn’t really find anything to encourage me to read the next volume. 2.5/5 stars.