Department 19: The Rising by Will Hill
Jamie Carpenter and his Department 19 teammates Larissa and Kate are still dealing with the events at Lindisfarne. Jamie destroyed a powerful vampire, and rescued his mother. But his mother is now a vampire. And Jamie has been trying to keep his relationship with Larissa a secret, along with knowledge about the Lazarus Project. And so many secrets begin to break down Jamie’s team from within. Meanwhile, Dracula’s ashes have been stolen, and he’s getting resurrected. And Department 19 only has a few months to find and destroy Dracula at his weakest before he is at full strength and becomes unstoppable.
This is a direct sequel to last year’s Department 19, and jumped right into the story. Unfortunately, there was no recap, and it was difficult to catch up since I couldn’t recall all of the previous events. Once I got a ways into the book, I was able to pick up enough of what happened to appreciate current events. I remember enjoying the first novel, and thankfully I was soon devouring this installment with gusto as well.
Fast-paced and action-packed, this violent adventure series is riveting and thrilling. As before, the story jumps around various characters and timelines, but was fairly easy to follow as the complexity of the stories merged together towards the end. With several surprising twists throughout, the action was rivaled by the exciting story and colorful characters. Full of adventure, suspense, carnage, intrigue, drama, and a bit of romance – The Rising is a powerful sequel. The novel ends without much resolution to a couple of the main plots, leaving readers eagerly awaiting the upcoming sequel.