This book takes place about ten years after the events of Blood Canticle. Blood Canticle was meant to be the end of the series, so this gap was large. The vampire world is in chaos and Lestat finds himself trying to sort out mysteries and problems. Lestat is transitioning from his role of troublemaker to leader, so that is interesting to see. Throughout the series, he hasn't really been a leader. He has been getting into shenanagins. David and Gabrielle return in this book, so it was nice to see them. Louis, Armand, Marius, and Pandora also come back in this book. It was great to have some of the characters that were missed from the last couple of books. There were some things that happened in this book that made me very cross, but it wasn't the worst book.