DARK MOON

Trey Laporte hadn’t finished absorbing the revelations—that he’s a werewolf, that vampires, magic and demons exist and that he’s an integral part of a prophecy—before a malevolent vampire attacked him and injured his mentor (WEREling, 2010). Now, assisted by Alexa, Trey journeys into the fringe of the Netherworld to retrieve a mystical healing sphere from the dark sorceress Gwendolin, Alexa’s mother. A simple plot and a basic contrivance help to move things along nicely, building up the relationship between Trey and his companions at the estate of Alexa's father, Lucien Charron. Meanwhile, Charron Industrial has a sleeper agent buried in the office, and the fate of Trey’s stealth mission may rest in the ability of clerkish Martin Tipsbury to keep a secret. Though setting up the inevitable battles takes quite some time, the foreboding shadow that dominates Martin’s subplot leaves readers in no hurry. Betrayals and more bitter revelations come to light, setting the stage for the third novel. This second installment is weaker than the first, but it certainly fills a niche; Feasey’s fast pace and somewhat gross demonology evoke another across-the-pond horror writer, Darren Shan. (Horror. 12 & up)