Review: Intimations of Mortality (Forever Knight #2)

"He has walked the night beat for centuries. He is one of the finest homicide detectives in Toronto. But Nick Knight wishes he could shed the curse of this true calling. The burn of the thirst. The thrill of the kill, the endless nights longing to be human...not a vampire."

Intimations of Mortality, by Susan M. Garrett, is the second novel in the Forever Knight novel series, based on the 1990s television series produced by Paragon Entertainment Corporation in association with TriStar Television. In his quest for mortality, Nick Knight meets a mysterious woman who claims she can grant his wish. Faced with two different worlds, his dream world brought upon by a mysterious doll, and the real world, Nick soon finds himself torn between himself as a vampire in the real world and mortal in the dream world.

In the dream, he is mortal working in a police department dominated by vampires. LaCroix has also become mortal and is the leader of the anti-vampire underground. Everyone else he knows in the real world has turned into vampires. The vampires in the dream world must struggle between the vampire law, the bloodlust, their lingering attachments to the mortal world left behind, and feelings for some of those mortals. Natalie, his lover, has been assigned to turn Nick into an immortal again for his excellent work performance.

When Nick wakes up from his dreams, he can feel himself becoming a mortal each day. Has he finally found the cure for the 800-year-old monster that lives within him? However, what one desires comes with a price. Is he willing to pay dearly for it?

I think this is the best book among the three Forever Knight novels. Susan M. Garrett ingenuously captured the characters' personalities from the television series. She gives Nick Knight the ultimate challenge when he must ask himself, "What is mortality? What is it like to be human?" The moral of the story seems to be that "the grass is not always greener" on the other side. Nick Knight finds himself conflicted in both worlds and the outcomes end with mixed results. In other words, what Nick Knight may ultimately seek is not mortality per se but actually redemption. He comes to the realization that he is a vampire...forever.

For Forever Knight fans, this is an excellent novel. The characters are all true to the series, and the action is faithful to the timeline of the last half of the final season. The interactions of the various characters and how they change as the realities shift is done quite well. If you have not heard of Forever Knight, I highly recommend you rent or buy the DVDs soon!

If you are looking for a similar television series, check out Moonlight (2007). Although only one season was produced, it carries the same theme of a vampire named Nick St. John, who longs to be mortal again and works as a private investigator as his way of regaining his humanity. It has very positive reviews, and I should have a review of the television series available on this website soon.

Stay tuned to the final novel in the Forever Knight series, These Our Revels, which is a flashback of Nick's life in Elizabethan England (1500-1600s).