Night Owls

Roy’s debut is an entertaining and exciting addition to the urban fantasy field, and if it stumbles here and there (and certainly isn’t anything groundbreaking), it’ll satisfy folks looking for a solid supernatural adventure. Valerie McTeague is a vampire who owns and runs a late-night bookstore, trying to avoid vampire politics. She does fine until she meets Elly, a hunter of “Creeps”–jackal-like were-creatures who devour humans–and discovers that the Creeps might have found a way to increase their numbers to dangerous proportions. Along with Valerie’s human familiar, Chaz, a college student named Justin, and a pair of succubi, the two women find themselves embroiled in a supernatural battle. Roy can spend too much time on plot hooks for sequels, and her characterizations occasionally ring hollow (Chaz’s unflappable aplomb feels particularly egregious), but in general, she delivers a good cast, believable interactions, and some vivid and brutal fight sequences. Agent: Miriam Kriss, Irene Goodman Literary Agency. (Feb.)