When I first encountered “Winter’s Mercenary”, I wasn’t too certain I’d be interested being that I understood the title was about a vampire who works for Queen Mab—for those not in the know, she’s got a lot of names in fantasy but is commonly the Faerie Queen of the Winter Court. Since I’m a strong reader of Irish and Celtic lore her appearance tends to lend a sense of gravity to anything I read.

Fortunately, this work held a bit more of the gravitational rather than gravitas. It begins, not with a bang, but with a punch. In media res is a good way to catch my attention and then it managed even to hold it. The story comes out in literally bite-sized-chunks that any vampire reader can readily sink their fangs into. And it manages to punctuate the plot with both jags of action and spikes of off-the-cuff humor.

From where I’m reading right now it’s only up to chapter nine, but I’ll probably be putting this into my list while I’m looking for something to read. The small bites are easy to digest; and while they tend to end with cliffhangers—every so many chunks does this—I really don’t mind that in the least. I remember reading Sherlock Holmes stories published in The Strand magazine that did much the same.

People who like magic, guns, and a scoundrel of a main character will certainly enjoy this as much as I have.

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