Review: No Rest For the Wicked by AM Riley

No Rest for the Wicked is the sequel to last year's Immortality is the Suck, the book which introduced me to AM Riley and thus began a major glom of the rest of the author's writing.  It comes as no surprise then if I tell you that I've been hotly anticipating this book ever since I learned that the sequel was being written.  The trouble with sequels to great books is that they often fall short of the original, leading to disappointment.  Fortunately this time that wasn't the case as I loved this book just as much as the first.  It managed to keep the same sardonic tone of the first book whilst also keeping the ideas fresh and interesting.

My love of Immortality is the Suck sprang from my unwilling admiration of self-confessed selfish bastard and vampire, Adam, the first person narrator and 'hero' of that book.  Once again Adam is our narrator in No Rest for the Wicked, but he's a slightly changed man from that first book in that he's making more of an effort to redeem himself and be slightly less of a bastard than he was previously.  The story picks up a few months after the end of the last book.  Adam has been a vampire for about a year now and has pretty much come to terms with his undead state.  He has joined with a band of other vampires who have formed a bit of a vampire vigilante group whose mandate seems to be hunting down dangerous vamps and taking them out.  To help them in this quest they have human computer nerd, Drew, who is keeping an eye on the news and web in return for gaining some vampire research material for his thesis.  This leads to various amusing scenes where Adam tries to understand all the technology Drew has in place, included some very tongue-in-cheek digs at blogging.

However, this is all secondary to the main focus of the plot which is the relationship between Adam and his human lover Peter.  This relationship was mainly relegated to a sub-plot in the last book, but here it's brought to the forefront as Adam tries to keep his relationship going in the face of competition from Peter's human friend, Jonathan, as well keeping the less savoury side of what he's doing with the other vamps from Peter.  At the beginning of the story, Peter, who's a homicide cop, has been working himself into the ground.  Adam finally manages to get some time with Peter but it all goes pear shaped when Adam discovers a body in the men's room of the cinema they are in, which looks to be a victim of a vamp attack.  This then leads Peter and Adam, along with an FBI agent to a group of vampires who might be responsible.

The best, and perhaps most humourous, part of the story is in the way that Adam is so obviously trying hard to impress Peter, a man who he has treated incredibly badly in the past.  Adam's clumsy attempts to be good to Peter are thwarted at every turn, and even when they finally manage some time alone, Peter is ill from overwork and exhaustion.  For Adam, who always seems to get what he wants when he wants, the situation is steeped in irony.  I found Adam's attempts to change into the perfect boyfriend for Peter quite sweet, especially as it showed a level of devotion which appeared to be missing in the first book.  Peter also comes into his own in this book, as we find out more about what makes him tick.  As a result he is a much more stronger and more sympathetic character than in the first book where he came across as too passive and weak in places.

The way that Adam treats Peter is then contrasted quite nicely with how he behaved with everyone else, when he reverts back to his unpleasant, surly, disagreeable self.  I particularly liked the interaction between Adam and his vampire associate and past lover, Caballo, as they sparred frequently, both verbally and physically.  Cabello, who has been a vampire longer than Adam, is starting to show signs of turning away from the noble calling of saving humans from bad vampires, and is becoming bad himself, as we see from the dismissive way that he refers to humans as food and some of his actions as the book continues.  It raised the uncomfortable suggestion that perhaps, in the end, all vampires lose their humanity, and made me wonder whether that would be Adam's fate too.

One of the things I hadn't liked so much in the first book was the slightly convoluted mystery plot with its myriad of different characters.  Thankfully the mystery in this book was pared down so it was much easier to follow with fewer important characters, whilst also being interesting and original.  The fact that the romance plot and the mystery plot is dependant on each other, because of Peter's involvement in the case, meant that the book held together better, rather than the last book where the two plots ran parallel to one another.

By the time I got to the end I was pretty satisfied.  The mystery was all wrapped up and there was some sense of closure in the relationship between Adam and Peter.  I suspect that this is it for them now, although I wouldn't mind another book because Adam is just such a charismatic character that it's a shame not to have more of him.  I thoroughly enjoyed this second outing for Adam and Peter (or third if you count the Christmas short) and the only note of caution would be that some of the descriptions are a bit grizzly on occasion and not for the faint-hearted.  I highly recommend No Rest for the Wicked with a grade of 'Excellent' for those who have read the first book - and really you must read the first book before this to understand what is happening as well as to appreciate the change in Adam.  AM Riley just keeps getting better and better and I can't wait to read the next book from this author.

Buy this book HERE.