<i>Infected: Life After Death (Infected #3)</i> by Andrea Speed

Infected: Life After Death (Infected #3) by Andrea Speed

13 Jun 2011 6 Comments

by Lisa in Andrea Speed, authors Tags: Andrea Speed

Title: Infected: Life After Death (Infected #3)
Author: Andrea Speed
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 350
Characters: Roan McKichan, Dylan Harlow
POV: 3rd person
Setting: Contemporary
Sub-Genre: Urban Fantasy
Cover Rating: 5
Kisses: 5

Blurb:

In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex-cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds.

But when your heart is gone, it’s easy to fall into a black hole and never crawl out. Roan has been lost and alone for more than a year, and his best friends think a new case might be just the motivation he needs. Roan forces himself back into the game and discovers a dead man who might not be all that dead, a street hustler that wants to hustle him, and a dominatrix who is well prepared to take Roan’s orders. As Roan claws his way out of the darkness by diving back into his work, he finds himself in a race against time in the adrenaline-pumping realization that nothing helps a person want to live like helping someone else survive.

Review:

I’m going to admit that I went into this installment of the Infected series with no small amount of anxiety. And maybe just a wee bit of reluctance. Read Infected: Prey and Infected: Bloodlines and you’ll know why. I’m still not sure if I’ve recovered entirely.

Yes, to start, it was every bit as difficult as I’d feared; yet, at the same time, Infected: Life After Death became an affirmation that even when you take a pass on living, life rarely takes a pass on you, especially when there are people who are determined to make sure you continue to exist in whatever way you can; until one day, you finally find the strength to manage the days which suddenly become years, then find the connection to life that maybe begins to feel a little like hope.

Roan McKichan’s loss has altered his very being, his grief manifesting itself into the driving force that dictates the flow of his days and nights. Yet love, though the loved one may be gone from his life, continues to direct Roan’s journey, through his friends, through his subconscious. All it takes is one timely connection, one person who understands, one person who gets that Roan needs to cope with his sorrow in his own time and in his own way that becomes an unexpected gift. Roan finds the one person who, when he’d so aggressively given up on his life, made him feel like he might want to take it back again.

As a small but devoted group of friends helps Roan to emerge from a place a bit too close to insanity, he finds he must learn how to make his way through the collateral damage of what is left of his life, and finds that, through his job as a private investigator, sometimes other people’s lives can give yours a run for the money on the devastation scale. It’s a kinship that only those who’ve waded through the flotsam and survived can understand.

In typical Andrea Speed fashion, she has managed to combine a cracking good set of investigative cases in this urban fantasy setting, with a dash of romance thrown in for good measure.

These characters are entirely human—even when they’re not entirely human—and have come to life on the page. They’ve drawn me into their world so effortlessly that it’s difficult to remember a time when I didn’t know who they were, and now, all I want is to know them better.

This book begins in despair and ends with a cautious optimism that has me longing for book #4 in the series. Roan and Dylan’s story is just beginning; will it thrive? Only Andrea Speed knows that for sure, and I for one cannot wait to see where she takes them.

Reviewed By: Lisa

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