"Laurell K. Hamilton scores another bestseller heading for the New York Times bestseller list."

A Stroke of Midnight Laurell K. Hamilton Ballantine, April 2005, $23.95, 367 pp. ISBN 0345443578

The attempted assassination of Princess Meredith of the faerie Unseelie Court failed and the coup to unseat the Queen of Air and Darkness, Andais was thwarted. The princess gives a press conference in the sithen (faerie mound) because a human policeman under the spell of a sidhe (faerie) had attempted to kill her and that has to be explained. After the conference is over, Merry and her harem of sexy and beautiful guards found a dead photographer and a sidhe, both the victims of murder by one of more of the sidhe.

Merry convinces her Aunt to let the police into the sithen because the reporters know one of their own is missing. Anais agrees but intends to conduct her own investigation. Merry and her guards are the focus of another assassination attempt and while they struggle to stay alive, Merry's presence in the sithen brings it to life recreating features that have withered away centuries ago. Merry also gives back the powers the sidhe lost when they were allowed entry to this country by President Jefferson. This makes the queen jealous because Merry can do what she can no longer perform and when a predator is angered, anything can happen.

The latest entry in the Princess Meredith series is a fantastic and enthralling adult fairy tale complete with a beautiful princess, a host of archetype princes " who act as Merry's guards and the wicked witch (in this case the evil faerie queen). There is a lot of exotic sex and action IN A STOKE OF MIDNIGHT and very visual descriptions of the reawakening of the sithen. Laurell K. Hamilton scores another bestseller heading for the New York Times bestseller list.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 29, 2005

Summary

Solving a double homicide, avoiding assassins and coping with growing, sometimes uncontrollable, power keep faerie private detective Princess Meredith NicEssus (aka Meredith Gentry) busy in the fourth and strongest entry in Hamilton's adult fairy tale series (after 2004's Seduced by Moonlight). When someone murders a fey and a reporter during a press conference inside the Unseelie's headquarters, Merry calls in the cops to assist (and inadvertently involves the FBI as well). But once on magical turf, human police face challenges and dangers of which the princess was unaware. Meanwhile, Merry lives up to the five fertility deities in her lineage and lustily fulfills her royal duty of mating with sidhe males and making sex beyond mere human comprehension. As Merry matures, the meaning of all the sex and magic comes into more effective focus, as does Hamilton's underlying mythos of the restoration of the faerie race's true power. The absence of complicated politics results in a more palatable plot than in previous volumes. By the end, the Unseelie court seems to be tiring of Merry's super- sadistic Aunt Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness (as are, most likely, many readers). The queen's son and Merry's rival for the throne, Prince Cel, looms as an even greater, more corrupt menace to her future. Faeries, fornication and forensics fuse for yet another darkly fantastic frolic for Hamilton fans.