Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand by Carrie Vaughn

The fifth book in the series without a cutesy name -- and I do appreciate that -- sees Kitty Norville and her fiancee/lawyer/co-alpha werewolf Ben O'Farrell head to Las Vegas from their Denver home with the intention of getting quietly married and doing a one-off filmed-for-TV version of Kitty's radio show. But we all know about intentions, right? (The very next book in the series, published a mere month after this one, is even titled Kitty Raises Hell.)

This is another one of those pesky books I read some time ago -- this one was back in April -- and stuck into a pile to write about "later." Well, it's later now, but I don't remember the plot well enough to do it justice. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though I haven't gotten to Kitty Raises Hell yet (and I see that there's another book, Kitty's House of Horrors, publishing on Monday). But it's a series book, and it has the usual pleasures of a series -- returning to the same characters and seeing the world develop in interesting ways. Vaughn also has a remarkable fondness (within the realm of urban fantasy) for the rule of law and for legitimate authority, which I feel should be encouraged -- there are too many vigilante vampires and vampire-slayers already. Kitty, at least, doesn't see her role in life as running around slaughtering the people she disagrees with, which is a refreshing change.