Sep 12, 2026
Such an awesome wedding present!
This is the 50th volume I have read from the masterful pen of Declan Finn, I read most in under a year after first discovering his works. This is the third story in the Honeymoon from Hell series, and the seventh novel (there are some shorter works out there) featuring Marco Catalano and Amanda Colt and it is another amazing story. There are 5 planned in this series, or this part of Amanda and Marco’s story. At the ends of this one we know where they are headed next and just the mention of joining Tommy Nolan of the St Tommy NYPD fame brought a smile to my face. But I am getting ahead of myself, back to the volume at hand. The chapters in this volume are: More Trouble in Little Japan Visions of the Future Countdown to Doomsday Murder on the Atlanta Express Blood Moon Not a Dark Lord Boys of Translyvania Midnight Train to Georgia SPF Infinity Dark Envoy Blood from the Chalice Plaza of Death Vampire Surgery Riddle in the Dark Daylight Raid Plans According to Plan Nowhere to Run Parade Ground Gas Leak Eat In Playing by Rules Into the Fire Treatment Prey Showdown Applications of Power Speed of Lightning In Your Head Terminated Convention’s End We have a convoluted cast of characters in this story and it ties to many of Finn’s other series in one way or another. Our main cast includes: Marco Catalano – the groom, a physician assistant. Killer of evil, brilliant with a supercomputer like mind, and like Kirk does not believe in no win situations nor does he know how to back down. Amanda Colt – 100 year old vampire, force for good. Takes communion, goes to confession, and has fought in almost every war for a century and is a spy with top clearance. Jennifer Bosley – 400 year old vampire, president of the New York Vampire Association, mentor to Amanda,. Raymond Wilson – Police Commissioner – Bosley’s plus one. Enrico – crime family contact for Marco. Galadren – relation to Marco, most dangerous man in middle earth. Merle Kraft – spook specializing the weird, strange and unusual. Runs a team out of San Francisco, has previously worked with Marko. Rory – aka Sean Allis Treacy, a vampire who fights for good, an Irishman who still reminisces about eh old days. Father William Rodgers - Vatican Ninjas SpecOps … Foes: Big list of bad guys to be worked through A final boss Amanda thought long dead Division Four (who “work for the People’s Republic of Cowards.”) … The introduction of Lim Tong whom readers of St Tommy will recall was an intriguing twist. And another twist was that final conversation between Dalf and Amanda! After reading that passage I need to go back and reread the whole Saint Tommy Series with this information in mind. And some of the actual authors or books he mentions are wonderfully done. With even more characters dropped in this story I was surprised not to have seen either Father Richard Freeman or Father Michael Pearson appear, there are still 2 volumes to go. In an older edition of Madeline L’Engle’s Space Quartet there was a family tree that included her Kairos, Chromos Series as well as other volumes including her non-fiction. I am beginning to feel like someone needs to make such a character tree for Finn’s ever expanding canon of work. The events in this story take place over I believe just 5 days. The main story is Marco’s and Amanda’s continued honeymoon. It involves their friends, family, associates and even just others with common enemies. The largest gathering of people who know Marco yet. Even bigger than the wedding and that was a real mixed bag. Part way through they get an inkling who they are actually up against, but they also fig out he might just be a pawn for another player, well maybe not pawn, maybe rook, knight, bishop and throw in all the moves of the queen at once. They are about to face their biggest challenge yet! This story if even more full of Finn’s action, adventure and battles. Improvised weapons, the normal weapons of Marco and a new toy sent as a wedding present is used yet again, and Marco decides to claim some weapons from those defeated and this leads to some serious conflict!. Battles with multiple cybernetic Zombie hordes, more than one encounter with monsters. And even a sort of created dragon, who even breathes fire. And We have Division 4. We have Marco, Amanda and those who care for them and have worked with them coming together to fight the good fight yet again, and on many fronts they realize the battle is bigger than they initially thought. They are attacked on multiple fronts simultaneously. There are a number of surprises and some interesting really interesting twists. It was nearly impossible to put this book down. I stayed up way too late on a work night, reading and woke at 4 and just got up to finish it before work. It will leave you desperate for the next instalment. It is another excellent read from the masterful pen of Finn. The third in what is shaping up to be an amazing series. A book I can easily recommend.
