Book #58: Midnight Alley

Title: Midnight Alley (Book #3 of The Morganville Vampire series, first book in the second omnibus edition)

Author: Rachel Caine

Date started reading: April 18, 2012
Date finished reading:  April 20, 2012

Publish date: Originally October 2007 (omnibus edition published in September 2010)
ISBN: 978-0451232892
Number of pages: 230 in this book, 464 total in the full omnibus edition

Official summary: "Claire Danvers' college town may be run by vampires but a truce between the living and the dead made things relatively safe. For a while. Now people are turning up dead, a psycho is stalking her, and an ancient bloodsucker has proposed private mentoring. To what end, Claire will find out. And it's giving night school a whole new meaning." (http://www.morganvilletexas.com)

How I obtained the book: Bought for $4.24 at used book store (it was a publisher's remainder, so it wasn't really a used book). I actually spent about 20 minutes in an internal debate about buying the omnibus versus the two books separately. I could've saved about 40 cents buying them separately, but both of them were used, while the omnibus was new. Sometimes I think I'm too cheap. Arguing with myself over 40 cents is plain stupid, but oh well...

Memorable quotes:

• "If the only other person left on the planet was Jack the Ripper, Claire would have trusted him first." ~ Claire about Monica
• "Making bargains was a way of life in Morganville, and it was a lot like making deals with man-eating fairies. Better be careful what you ask for." ~ Claire
• "Home is where the heart is. Why don't you leave yours here? I'll take very good care of it." ~ Myrnin to Claire
• "You know what we call pedestrians in Morganville? Mobile blood banks." ~ Michael
• "Next time you sell your soul to the devil, I get first contact! Girl solidarity." ~ Eve to Claire
• "You could put a stake through my heart, and I would simply pull it out and be very annoyed with you for ruining my wardrobe." ~ Amelie
• "Little girls who take candy from strangers in Morganville get hurt. Or worse." ~ Eve to Claire
• "One thing she'd figured out about the vampires in Morganville, they were never exactly what they seemed to be, even the bad ones." ~ Claire
• "If you're going to have a freak vamp friend, you might as well get your money's worth out of it." ~ Michael to Claire
• "Morganville liked its drugs, but she guessed that made sense. There was a hell of a lot to escape from around here." ~ Claire
• "You shouldn't be afraid of me because I'm a vampire. You ought to be scared because you just trash-talked my girlfriend to her face." ~ Michael to nurse
• "Sometimes it hardly seemed that vampires were the bad guys, given the things people did to each other without the excuse of needing a pint of O neg to get through the day." ~ Claire

My commentary: I am still extremely impressed with Rachel Caine's writing style and the Morganville world. This book ended in a multi-cliffhanger that left me with my mouth dropped clear open several times. It takes a really talented author to pull off cliffhangers that not only close some stories, but open up the doors to so many future possibilities

Buy on Amazon.com: The Morganville Vampires, Vol. 2 (Midnight Alley / Feast of Fools)