Vampires & Vigilantes – Ella Summers

I’ve enjoyed a couple of Summers’s series, so I gave this first book of a new series a try. Most series starts draw the read in by telling a good story, often with a limited cast, and giving the reader a glimpse of a larger story and a larger cast in the background. This one is more like a role-playing briefing book: We are introduced to one character after another, with minimal story to get in the way. (The protagonists are attacked by monster X. They are saved by character Y, who can be - and often is - summed up with a one-line description. Character Y takes them to see character Z….)

Too little plot. Too little character development. Too much cliche: I won’t be back for book two, to find out how and why the Demons are secretly backing the Witches against the Vampires and the Mages.