LIGHTFALL

A plucky vampire working as a maid in the palace conducts espionage to unravel the mystery of the heir’s murder.

Sam has spent the last decade working in the First Lord’s palace. She is immortal, like everyone else—or at least she has the potential to be. As a Worn, a member of the lowest vampire caste, she subsists on cowblood, which doesn’t stop the aging process. Sam has big dreams of moving out of her city, First Light, and passing herself off as a middle-class vampire somewhere else. Of course, the Grays—mortal enemies of the vampires—stalk the city walls and kill anyone who dares to leave. Still, Sam hoards information from the forbidden section of the First Lord’s library to barter and blackmail her way to freedom someday. That curiosity and hunger earn the attention of Daphnée, a lower-ranking vampire Lord who happens to be Queen Leech: commander of an army of Worn spies spread across the city. Lucky for Daphnée, Sam just found a clue that may solve the recent murder of the First Lord’s son, which the maid willingly adds to the Leeches’ amassed knowledge of First Light’s goings-on. Now, aided by a pair of magickless mages and a werewolf who hunts down rogue werewolves, Sam must piece together the mystery of Azzuri the Younger’s death...if she can survive long enough to gather her evidence. Crocker has developed a well-thought-out world here, complete with a vampire stock market for blood strains and centuries of lore. The novel often seems more concerned with showing off its worldbuilding than getting the reader invested in Sam’s mission, however, and the leaps to other characters’ points of view make it difficult to connect with her.

A sweeping paranormal fantasy in which the worldbuilding often crowds out the plot.