James Asher, one-time English spy and now Oxford don, and his wife Lydia are in 1912 China investigating reports of mindless vampire-like creatures outside of Peking. Asher's old mentor and vampire hunter Professor Karlebach is with them, as he fears one of his students is now one of the Others and is converting more. So too arrives the vampire Don Ysidro, although why he decides to go after the Others is not quite clear to me. The murder of a young woman, supposedly by her fiance, prompts a local British official to blackmail Asher into pinning the murder on someone, anyone, else. Asher splits his time between searching for the Others and looking into the murder, but soon runs afoul of the biggest Chinese criminal gang and is on the run. Lydia and Karlebach take up the task, afraid that the Chinese emperor will find a way to weaponize the Others and sell them to other governments - much the same theme as we saw in the last two books. Fast-paced, still interesting characters, still liking the dilemma faced by the Ashers by protecting Ysidro. But the action is very similar to the last two books: Asher goes out in the field, Lydia stays home researching, someone grabs Asher, Lydia looks for him then someone grabs her, Ysidro helps them both out and the evil is vanquished for the moment. You'll want to read this series from the beginning to get the full flavor.

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