Halfway to the Grave is the first novel in the Night Huntress series.
Catherine "Cat" Crawfield has made a clandestine career out of hunting vampires, hoping to gain the approval of her mother, who resents her for being the spawn of a vampire who raped her, by finding and killing her father.
Cat eventually catches the eye of Crispin "Bones" Russell III, with whom she enters an agreement whereby she trains with Bones to become a more formidable combatant, and Cat finds herself questioning if vampires are inherently evil.
When Cat is targeted by a vampire gangster, she and Bones uncover a horrific conspiracy.
Tropes:
- Broken Pedestal: When Cat learns that Hennessey's business partner was none other than Governor Ethan Oliver, she is dismayed, having previously voted for him.
- Corrupt Politician: Governor Ethan Oliver has frequented Hennessey's brothels to rape women, used his position as Governor of Ohio to cover up the disappearances of Hennessey's victims, and tries to blow up a hospital to eliminate any witnesses. On top of all this, Oliver intends to take credit for a reduced crime rate in Ohio, using his position as a springboard for the US Presidency.
- Diabolical Mastermind: Hennessey is the ringleader of a nationwide human trafficking network which specializes in forced prostitution, hemophagia, and anthropophagy.
- Gargle Blaster: Cat lets alcoholic ghost informant Winston partially possess her to experience the joy of drinking moonshine again. Cat is disgusted by the drink, comparing the taste to kerosene and calling it several time more potent than gin. Bones is shocked and horrified that she actually got through a whole jug of it.
- Good Bad Girl: Francesca has the most pronounced Ms. Fanservice wardrobe and figure in the book, if not the series, displays very flirty demeanor around Bones, and knowingly glances at his girlfriend Cat in a challenging manner as she kisses Bones. However, she used to be a novitiate until she was kidnapped from a twentieth century nunnery and wishes that she'd been allowed to live a modest mortal life of chastity. She also hates Hennessy and his human trafficking crimes and is determined to bring him down regardless of the risk to her life, while also showing contempt for how human society allows sex trafficking, disease, and starvation without helping the needy.
- Human Trafficking: Hennessey's organization regularly captures destitute women, forces them into prostitution, and extracts their blood for consumption, while Governor Ethan Oliver works to cover up the disappearances of said women.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Hennessey presents himself as a well dressed, well mannered, classy individual, but it is all a cover for his sociopathy and greed.
- Moral Disambiguation: The book starts out with Cat Crawfield hunting vampires in general under the impression that they are evil. After finding out from her encounter with Bones Russell that vampires are not always the monsters she has been led to believe, Bones enlists Cat's help in dismantling a human trafficking network run by both vampires and humans.
- Ms. Fanservice: Cat calls Bones's spy Francesca "without a doubt the most gorgeous female I had ever seen. In person or on television." She spends a full paragraph describing Francesca's impossibly voluptuous figure and the extremely tight and minimalist dress she is wearing.
- Really Royalty Reveal: After Cat jokingly asks Bones' elegant former fellow convict and vampire "brother" Charles/Spade if he used to be a duke, he introduces himself as "Baron Charles DeMortimer".
- Sex Slave: Hennessey regularly forces impoverished women into prostitution.
- Sickbed Slaying: Governor Oliver attempts to have the hospital holding the survivors of his trafficking network bombed.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Governor Ethan Oliver has a respectable reputation which hides his true personality as a vile rapist who colludes with human traffickers.
