Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand

By: Carrie Vaughn

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Already the alpha pair of Denver's werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben now plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping to Las Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping froufrou drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live television, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters.

Elsewhere on the Strip, an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding but her very life.

Listen to more titles in the Kitty Norville series.

©2009 Carrie Vaughn, LLC (P)2010 Tantor

Renewed my Vows in Vegas Right After Reading this!

Ok, something about the name "Kitty" turned me off this book for about a year, finally I gave into to all the recommendations. I am glad I did. She is funny and so unlucky, it reminds me of Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich series, but much much more unlucky. I got hooked quickly and I only have one book left in the series. Each book builds on the last, and average about 7 hours a piece just enough time for Kitty to get herself in trouble and right back out of it again. This is not a deep book but enjoyable just the same. It's light at times, funny, and then serious but not so overwhelming that you can't set it down and come back to it. Its a good light read and the narrator was just perfect for the book, she tells the story in a light enjoyable way, and she has become the voice of Kitty in my mind.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A bit chaotic!

This is a good story but it feels incomplete, like a PART I. The characters are not as developed as her other books. Kitty is still a great main character and this about her trip to Vegas to get married to Ben....add a radio show, her parents, and Vegas chaos intertwined with were-tigers, vampires, bounty hunters and a poker tournament. It just didn't flow as well as the other books but you need to read it because the next book picks up where this left off. It was OK, not great!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good story!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this entire series to my friends, Kitty is a great heroine, she's funny, smart and a genuinely nice person...she cant help it if someones alway trying to kill her....lol

Who was your favorite character and why?

Kitty of course...

Which scene was your favorite?

when Kitty and Ben finally get married....I was happy for her...nothing comes easy for Kitty...she deserves a happy ending!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Maybe...but I didn't.....lol

Any additional comments?

I love this series and am happy it was on sale....I bought all of them...and cant wait to read them all....Kitty is a very likeable MC....give this series a try....I highly recommend it!!!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Ok but not the best of the series

If you could sum up Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand in three words, what would they be?

Not the series best

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Tantalizing if a bit unsatisfying. The Long Game comes back around to tantalize us with
where the series is taking us in future books. I enjoy the relationship between Kitty and Ben. Being an attorney myself, I like Ben as a coolheaded partner to Kitty's trouble causing curiousity and frankness. This was a nice continuation of their partnership but the actual story line was a little too creepy for my taste.

Which scene was your favorite?

Any of the number of meetings with Ben's friends in the werewolf bounty hunter convention taking place in Kitty's Vegas hotel. I enjoyed the dialogues between the werewolf pair and their natural sworn frenemies.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Ziegfried and Roy in shapeshifter/vampire Land.

Any additional comments?

I've been slowly working my way through the series and this is probably my least favorite so far. There are important elements included in the book but somehow the storyline as a whole didn't grab me so I could give it a true thumbs up. Maybe it's the Ziegfried and Roy storyline (I've always found those two a little creepy in real life, and kind of a joke) but I just didn't feel as satisfied at the end as I have with the other books in the series I've finished so far. I really like this series, the main characters, and the narrator always does a great job. Looking forward to getting more credits to spend on the 2 books I think I've missed.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great werewolf yarn

I really like the Kitty Norville series. The writing is terrific. And you can't go wrong with Marguerite Gavin as narrator. She has a great voice!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I love this series

I like this series. I am happy that Kitty's character has developed but I can't believe how naive she still is about some things. I love the world that Ms Vaughn has created of all the were-shifters and the magical and folklore element. It's really cool. I just do not understand that even though the character is strong she also seems a bit cowardly about stuff. I guess thats what you call courageous. Being scared to do things but doing them anyway for the greater good. Then she is ridiculously judgmental about some things. So I am torn between the excitement of whats going to happen next while admiring her character to being annoyed by her sometimes wide-eyed narrow-mindness. Anyway. I still love this series and am getting ready to read the next one. I may have to take a break though because this particular book made me sooo annoyed with her. Nah. Who am I kidding. I am reading the rest of this series right now. lol.

Great!

This series is awesome. Love the story and the action. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Vegas Baby!

Who was your favorite character and why?

I didn't really have a favorite in this one. Kitty did too many stupid things, Ben was mostly AWOL, and no one else stole the show.

Which character – as performed by Marguerite Gavin – was your favorite?

MG does a really good job performing Kitty; except for the occasional mispronunciation. Also, at one point she said 'Ben' when she should have said 'Dom'. Though these things are more of an editing issue.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Lions, and tigers, and werewolves, oh my.

Any additional comments?

This story revolves around a wedding. The happy couple end up in Vegas on a working/wedding holiday. There are werecats, vampires, a magician, and a hotel full of gun enthusiasts and werewolf hunters. I enjoy this series and recommend it, though there are some issues. Kitty rushes headlong into a trap without any regard to her own safety and that is just stupid. She is also running all over town even though she is being stalked by an assassin, which is also stupid. I am not a fan of story lines that include characters with cancer. Kitty's mom is undergoing chemo, but she gets the ok from her doctor to go to Vegas. Not bloody likely. Mom slaps on a wig, and she is ready to go out on the town. Give me a break.

Not my favorite, but I can see the need for it...

My rating: Teen (violence)
Favorite character/s: Brenda/Evan

Kitty and Ben are planning a wedding, but werewolves hate crowds.... Solution? Vegas, baby! The whole idea seems ideal, until: 1) Mom and Dad want to come along, 2) Kitty's boss wants her to do a televised radio show from Vegas, and 3) Rick wants her to deliver a message (supposedly an introduction) to the Vegas master vamp Dom. Ben agrees, as long as Kitty will let him gamble all he wants. Sexy blue wedding dress? Check! Kicky heels? Check! Sexy fiancé? Check? Mom and Dad? Check????

So far so good, and I was all in, but the storyline gets a little muddled and far fetched once they get to Vegas. (I know, I know, it's a werewolf story with vampires thrown in, it's supposed to be farfetched, right?). The problem isn't so much that we start dealing with the possibility of more "otherness", it's that so much is thrown at us at once. All in one book. All in one town, and all at the same time. Some of the story breaks down.

What happens to Ben? We find out at the end, but even that explanation is muddled by Evan's part in it. Why does there have to be an "Evan's part" to begin with? It made more sense without Evan's contribution. Don't get me wrong; I'm very glad that Evan and Brenda are in the book, and I hope they show up in other books, but the whole "what happened to Ben" part was really confusing, and I'm not sure it really moved the story except as a plot device. It was just too convenient.

Then there's the vampire Dom. He's just odd. His speech is odd, his mannerisms are odd, and his whole network is odd. Why did Rick send her to Dom? Does Rick suspect something? I hope we find out that Rick suspected something, otherwise his reasons for sending Kitty to Dom are a little...I'm not sure. I'm hoping this one works toward the long game, and wasn't just another plot device.

The Vegas lycanthrope debacle was an interesting introduction for a different supernatural development, but I wasn't as fond of the way these lycanthropes were introduced. I don't know, I guess it just put my hackles up. And there was the magician... I'm intrigued by him, and I hope he shows up in another book. I also hope we get to see what the backstory is between him and the lycanthropes in Vegas. And the priestess; I guess we'll find out more about her in another book.

That's my point though, this book wasn't that long, but the story went in so many directions, it feels like the whole story was muddled. Where was the buildup? And what about the...cliffhanger is the wrong word, but it's obviously a lead-in to another book. One of the things I really liked about these books was their standalone storylines. Not that each book doesn't need some sort of backstory after the first one, but the plots are "whole" somehow. This entire book feels more like a plot device for future books. Not that I haven't already purchased those other books, but I hope they don't turn out the same way. I really enjoyed the previous episodes, and I want to enjoy future ones just as much. I'll chalk this one up to "world building", and hope for the best.

As always, Marguerite Gavin delivers a fine performance.

Pretty Good Installment

Kitty's back - and getting married to her pack mate and lawyer in Vegas... if they can avoid being kidnapped by the mob, being shot at by supernatural bounty-hunters, and being sacrificed to an ancient god by feline lycanthropes. What a honeymoon!

After the very clear story arc in the first four books, I always struggle a little bit with Dead Man's Hand (I think this is my third read). Not that the story isn't good; it is. It's just that I'm not sure where it's supposed to be going. I also wonder if the first thing a new werewolf alpha would really do after a takeover is leave pack and territory.

However, this book does introduce one of my very favorite characters; Odysseus Grant. Grant is an old-style stage magician in Vegas, complete with top hat and tails and all the classic illusionist tricks like scarves and rings and rabbits in hats. But his real purpose in Vegas is a bit more interesting. Grant is a guardian, tracking old-style dark magic, like the cult of Tiamat and an old portal to a Lovecraftian realm. I would SO love some stories about Grant; he's mysterious and enigmatic and oh-so interesting. There have to be some good stories there. Vaughn writes a lot of short stories; I'll have to go scour her website to see if any of them have been about Grant.

I also like the observations Kitty makes about her relationship with Ben. She describes that love "snuck up" on them; it didn't hit them like a massive explosion. Their wolves mated first, and then their human sides came later. I really like how Vaughn writes a realistic relationship for Kitty and Ben; they fight, they aren't attached at the hip, Ben's not an "alpha" male as we see in some books--he lets Kitty be herself and do her thing. They worry about each other, but they don't limit each other. It's a really refreshing take on relationships in popular culture.

Overall, I like this book, but not quite as much as the first four. But that's okay, 'cause there are a lot more books to come. :)

Purchased. Review courtesy of onebooktwo| one book, two reviews.