Glad it was a cut above the usual UF fare for you. It is very, very noir--Joe seemed classic cats-paw to me. This reminds me of The First Law series in that part of what was powerful was the gestalt. One of the books I didn't care for much--maybe three? I'll be interested to hear what you think as you keep going.

I am a bit of a UF newbie, though. I sort of got the impression, though, that if you took out the fantasy elements and replaced them with other things (vamp clans--mobsters; blood hunger-- alcoholism or drug addiction, for examples) you might have much the same story, albeit in a regular noir mystery format. In retrospect, the vampire slant seemed a little gimmicky, but I'm chalking that up to this being the first in the series. I'm hoping that the setting will feel less contrived in the other books.

This one was okay and I liked it well enough. Are the others as good or better?

Ah. The parallel didn't occur to me, but I can see it now... The vampire blood supply problem becomes an ongoing issue, but the parallel plays through, now that I think about it. I think book 2 was my clincher (http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/no-dominion-by-charlie-huston-actually-it-kind-of-dominates/) which is good, because three was weak. Four picked it up nicely, though. Hm. Well, if you feel in the mood, I'd continue the series. I liked the writing and characters, even though it was a bit darker than I enjoy.