This is the first in a series based on a community of vampires who live at Clare Point, Delaware, trying to keep their existence secret from humans after having fled vampire hunters in Europe four hundred years before. The Kahill clan, the inhabitants of the village, carry out their own kind of justice on various criminals, but we don't learn very much about that. The main hook of the story is FBI Agent Fia Kahill, who is investigating one murder in Philadelphia when she's called to investigate a beheading in her hometown of Clare Point.

When Fia arrives at Clare Point, she discovers another FBI agent from the Baltimore office is also assigned to the case. Initially suspicious of Agent Glen Duncan as he resembles her former evil lover, Ian Duncan, she soon finds that Glen is different. However, with another old lover, Joseph, causing her problems and more of the Clare Point vampires being separated from their heads, Fia doesn't know what to do or how to solve the crime in her village.

The pacing is a little off, with the story dragging through quite a large proportion of this book. The explanation of the vampire world is drip-fed to the reader, which makes it more interesting but also leaves the reader with quite a few questions as to how their lifecycles actually worked. The heroine, Fia, isn't a particularly sympathetic character whose interactions with other people are usually cold and uninformative. I wasn't entirely sure how she got her job with the FBI, as she doesn't seem particularly skilled or diligent in the work.

There are several plot threads in the story that aren't completed or are otherwise unsatisfactory. The past relationship with Joseph seems to be looming large, but then all that suddenly subsides; the relationship with Glen is never fully realized; and the final scene, where the vampire killer is confronted, all seems rather quick and easy. There are several side characters, such as Arlen, about whom there is presumably more to learn - I imagine these characters will be explored more in future books, but it leaves this book feeling rather unfinished and disappointing.

The writing style is good apart from the pacing issues, and the description of the strange town of Clare Point with its unusual inhabitants and how they seem to Glen is well realized. However, the overall story is a disappointment because the murder plot doesn't feel central enough, nor does the romance, and the reader is left with a lot of filler text.

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