Smoke and Mirrors

by Tanya Huff

Reviewed by Ruby

Tony Foster is still working as the assistant production manager, (I still don't know what that means) on the television show "Darkest Night". He still has the hots for the co-star, Lee, and the weird thing is that he's actually flirting back...sort off. Lee still runs off to bang Brenda whenever he has a chance, so Tony is confused about what's going on. And to make matters worse there are two dozen extras to worry about and he's responsible for the producer's two bratty girls while the producer is away and, oh yeah, they are shooting an episode in an actual haunted house. With actual ghosts.

Before Tony can get everybody out of the house, it wakes up and locks in 19 people.  Then the evil being living in the basement tries to drive the people trapped in the house insane, so they will kill each other and then themselves in a murder/suicide deal. Like it had done so many times in the past.

While Tony is trying to keep the people alive in the house, his ex, Henry, 450-year old vampire, is trapped outside, trying to help Tony anyway he can.

The worst thing, however, is that Tony is seeing the replays off all the deaths in the house. No else seems to see them, but they all feel the effects as they all start to crack.

The malevolent evil... thingy possess Lee and lures Tony into the basement because it wants Tony to join with it so it can leave the basement. Because Tony is completely infatuated with Lee he goes down and he determines that the only thing to do is destroy the evil thing in the basement.

I was a little disappointed that there was very little Henry in this book. I love Henry. I know that Tony is trying to become independent from Henry but that doesn't mean he has to vanish from the book all together.

Other than that, this was a great book, following the lines of the first one. I had a few problems with the style of writting here and there. There were times I couldn't figure out who was saying what and I had to reread the paragraph a few times before getting it. 

Grade: B