In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex–cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds. But when your heart is gone, it's easy to fall into a black hole and never crawl out. Roan has been lost and alone for more than a year, and his best friends think a new case might be just the motivation he needs. Roan forces himself back into the game and discovers a dead man who might not be all that dead, a street hustler that wants to hustle him, and a dominatrix who is well prepared to take Roan's orders. As Roan claws his way out of the darkness by diving back into his work, he finds himself in a race against time in the adrenaline–pumping realization that nothing helps a person want to live like helping someone else survive.
Review
When I picked up Andrea Speed's Infected: Life After Death, from Dreamspinner Press, my first thought was that its main character was a man living with HIV. The premise of the story is actually more of a metaphor, involving characters who are infected with a virus that causes them to shape-shift into lions, leopards, and other big, deadly cats. There are two earlier volumes in this very intriguing series, Infected: Prey and Infected: Bloodlines. I wasn't aware of those when I started reading this volume, but Ms. Speed does a very good job of filling in necessary details from the past stories while moving things along here.
Roan, one of the titular infected, is mourning the death of his lover, Paris. He has grieved to the point where his friends are considering putting him on life support. A former cop and now a private detective, he slowly begins to come around when a new case is dropped into his lap. It involves stolen identities, suspicious suicides and attacks on street hustlers. Also helping Roan out of his grief is a hot, mixed-race bartender named Dylan, who has himself suffered the death of a lover.
There isn't a lot of sex here. And that is actually a relief, as some m/m romances have guys hopping into bed with such frequency that it not only becomes repetitive, it seems completely unrealistic, even for a romantic fantasy. What we get here is a well-told mystery, populated by interesting characters. The budding romance between Roan and Dylan is handled slowly, sweetly, and with a realism that is surprising in a book where the lead character turns into a snarling lion if he loses control. If you like shapeshifters and mystery mixed with romance, this series is definitely for you.
