A Stroke of Midnight , Laurell K. Hamilton. If you're buying a Laurell K. Hamilton novel by this point in the game, you know not to expect too much in the way of plot. I was pleasantly surprised to find an actual mystery making up a decent portion of the book, but it's still mostly sex, talk about sex, and inter-court politics. The murder mystery is poorly resolved, and as several reviewers point out, the entire novel takes place in a single evening, which means that the plot twists from the prior novel aren't tied up either. Still, I'm far more likely to forgive Hamilton for this, as this series has been mostly about sex and politics from the beginning. It's quite an improvement on Incubus Dreams.