Events pick up pretty much straight after the previous volume with the events at the Falcone country house being covered up by the mob and seemingly by the GCPD as well. Norman Madison is still deeply traumatised by his encounter with the Batman, and his daughter Julie is still quite annoying. Gordon is creating suspicion as he retires to the rooftop of the GCPD for his meetings with Batman. It seems that Grogan is just as corrupt a commissioner as his predecessor.
Several storylines run alongside each other in this volume - the investigation into the vampiric murders that have been sweeping the city, Madison's struggles to free himself from debt to Sal Maroni and the whereabouts of a Falcone heroin shipment that has gone missing. These disparate elements seem to gel much better than they did in the last volume, and I enjoyed seeing Batman tackle several issues at once.
The Monk himself is quite a cheesy villain, based on an old storyline from the Golden Age of Bat-comics, but I found him more interesting than Hugo Strange if I'm honest. Dala was an odd accomplice, and was a bit of a racial stereotype in line with Sanjay from the previous volume.
However their interactions with Julie made her a slightly more interesting character this time round, with her desperation to help her father giving her something to do other than complain about Bruce constantly flaking out on their plans. It is her desperation that draws her into the clutches of The Monk, and even though this was something that has been seen in every vampire film going, it was still interesting to see Batman fighting for the safety of someone he loves.
Once his battle is over, Batman realises that to fight crime effectively, he needs to distance himself from others and close his heart off to love. This is a promise he never seems to live up to, and as a result it becomes necessary to save the lives of others who are drawn into his fight against the criminals of Gotham.
As with the last three volumes I've read, Batman shows his detective skills off nicely, and also his ingenuity when it comes to escaping difficult situations. We also see his determination to carry on despite grievous wounds, which is a trait which eventually leads to his defeat at the hands of some of his villains later on. Alfred also shows off his skills as an army medic as he patches up Bruce's wounds following his first visit to The Monk's castle.
Not to mention we get to see Batman beat up some wolves - and I almost thought that he used some 'wolf repellent spray' in a similar vein to the famous 'shark repellent'. Sadly it was only pepper spray.
Even though the final battle with The Monk leaves his fate unclear (in that his body is never seen following his fall from the roof of his castle) we have never seen this villain rear his head again, despite the narration hinting otherwise in the final pages. Perhaps that's because the villains we have seen so far have been a precursor, an indication of how Gotham is becoming darker. Several characters have commented already on how the villains in this city seem to be getting weirder, reacting to the Caped Crusader. The final pages serve us with more hints as to how strange things might eventually become.
At the end of the storyline, Batman overhears something on the police radio about a warehouse filled with corpses that all possess an eerie rictus grin. The Joker is next!
There is also another reference to the Man of Steel, which left me intrigued about when the two will first meet. I'll have to do someone research to see if that happens somewhere in this timeline. The final page also has a Haly's Circus advertisement - small nods to the future continuity like this make me a happy Batfan! It also makes this feel more like an ongoing storyline or chronicle of the career of the Bat.
Next up - The Man Who Laughs.
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