Book Review: Midnight Bites by Rachel Caine

Rachel Caine said this in her recent newsletters

MIDNIGHT BITES, the new Morganville Vampires short story anthology! It will bring together almost everything that I've written in short form about Morganville ... though I did leave out some of the original "diary" entries that appeared on an earlier version of the Morganville website, simply because they were just scenes and not stories, and were generally really short snippets. This is all short fiction, and it's been carefully organized into the timeline, so you can read from the earliest adventures (some of which belong to vampires) all the way through some post-Daylighters goodies.

MIDNIGHT BITES includes a total of more than 50,000 words of brand new content, which makes me very happy indeed (and I hope will also make you happy, too). From stories featuring our favorite bunny-slipper-wearing mad scientist to a mystery solved by police chief Hannah Moses, I think you'll find this is a diverse group of stories that will shine a little more light in the murkiest corners of Morganville.

My Review: 

Myrnin's Tale: A woman sells her son to be apprentice to an alchemist vampire as she fears he may be mentally ill like his father (3 star)

Nothing like an angel-Lady Grey, beheaded and returned as a vampire rescues Myrnin from his prison cell and nurses him back to health. (3 star)

Sam's Story-Sam loses his wife Melinda and has to bring up his son Steven alone and falls in love with the vampire Amelie, allowing her to turn his grandson Michael. (3 star)

Grudge-When Shane rejects the advances of Queen Bitch Monica he has no idea of what horrors are going to be in store for his family. (4 star)

New Blood-Eve and Michael try to find out why Monica is involved in a blood drive through the school as they witness what she does to destroy Shane. (4 star) 

First Day of the Rest of your Life-Eve is about to turn 18 and she is determined to reject Brandon as her vampire Protector...if she survives the night before. (4 star)

Amelie's Story-Oliver reports that Shane's father is back in town at the Glass House and she wonders if she was wrong to protect those who live there. (3 star)

Wrong Place Wrong Time- A gang of bank robbers think that the all night bank in Morganville is going to be an easy target but Richard has other plans. (4 star)

Dead Man Stalking-Shane and Michael are both kidnapped by Frank but the fates of both are to be very different. (3 star) 

Lunch Date-Claire is alarmed at the thought that someone else is in the house with her one lunchtime. (2 star)

All Hallows-Michael is abducted near the Blood Bank because Miranda decides that she wants to be turned. (4 star)

Murdered Out-When Claire's spained ankle almost leaves them stranded outside at night, Shane decides he needs to buy a car. (3 star)

Worth Living For-Bishop has escaped captivity and Shane is following Michael to see if he is helping his former master. (4 star)

Drama Queen's Last Dance-Gloriana is the new vampire in town and is a master seductress. When she sets her sights on Michael, Eve won't take that lying down. (4 star)

Vexed-Myrnin and Oliver are forced to team up to bring a dangerous vampire back after he escapes but a haunted house will be more of a test. (3 star)

Signs and Miracles-Hannah is trying to find out who attacked a young woman and left her for dead, and why none of the vampires went near her to feed. (4 star)

Anger Management-Shane goes into therapy with Theo and is challenged to get through 24 hours without getting into a fight. (4 star)

Automatic-A new blood vending machine is installed to feed vampires when the Blood Bank is closed. Michael is to be the first to try it. (4 star)

Dark Rides-Eve and Michael are looking for a vampire prisoner in a dark and dangerous theme park (3 star)

Pitch Dark Blues-Myrnin pays Shane to be his bodyguard in a time travel adventure to get hold of an important book (4 star)

A Whisper in the Dark-An ancient Russian vampire asks Eve for help but his motives are not what they first seem to be (4 star)

And One For The Devil-Claire and Eve have to save Myrnin when he goes missing in a haunted hotel (4 star)

Overall, this was a very enjoyable anthology and I'm always happy for more Myrnin in my life! It fills in the history gaps, explains why Monica hates Shane so much, how Eve became estranged from her family and turned goth, and revisits Morganville after the book series has ended. If you love the series, you should enjoy this.

My only niggle is that the author hasn't given an indication of exactly where each story fits into the book series timeline.

Read-all year!
4 stars