Review - Spike and Dru Pretty Maids All in a Row

The Vampires are Hired by a Demon to Destroy the Slayers in Waiting

Sep 25, 2009

Spike and Dru spent a century together before they went to Sunnydale and met Buffy. In 1940 the pair were hired by a demon to destroy the Slayer forever

Book Information

In the pre-Buffy days when Spike and Drusilla were together and devoted to one another, a demon gives them the task of eliminating the slayers in waiting in order to destroy the Slayers once and for all.

The year is 1940 and Drusilla’s vampire birthday is approaching and so Spike decides that he is going to give her Freyja's Strand. The Strand is a necklace that will enable the vampire to see her reflection. Spike and Drusilla make an agreement with the ice demon Skrymir. If they travel the world eliminating all the slayers in waiting and the current Slayer then he will hand over the necklace to Spike.

Meanwhile the current slayer, Sophie and her Watcher Yanna, are sent to rescue the remaining slayers in waiting. However their lives are complicated by the fact that Yanna has developed an unhealthy obsession with Spike.

If the Sophie fails to protect the slayers in waiting then it could be the end of the Slayers forever.

Pre-Buffy Adventure

Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row is set after Darla had left to rejoin the Master and Angel had been cursed with a soul (although neither Spike nor Drusilla know that Angel is no longer evil) and Spike and Drusilla are still very much together. This is a terrific book which focuses on the world in the days when the Slayer was a lone warrior who did her duty without question and spent very little time complaining.

The storyline may sound familiar to Buffy fans; in fact Buffy Season 7 had a very similar premise in which The First Evil was trying to destroy the Slayer by eliminating the Potential (slayers in waiting). Pretty Maids All in a Row was first published in 2001 and it is possible that it was the basis for the story arc of Buffy Season 7 which was aired in 2003 (however that is just speculation).

Sophie is a Slayer who is really only connected to her Watcher. She doesn’t seem to have many friends and does her duty. Unlike Buffy she doesn’t worry about school or dating, she recognises that she has a sacred duty to fight evil and so she fights evil. There are also a couple of references to a physical or sexual attraction between Sophie and Spike (when they are about to fight there is a suggestion that they might be preparing to make lover rather than fight). This suggests that perhaps Spike and the Slayers who track him have always had some attraction to one another but it wasn’t until Buffy that a Slayer actually gave into her lust and bedded him.

Unlike many books that focus on Buffy, the reader is not forced to read page after page in which the Slayer complains about the problems of having a family, friends, dating etcetera. There are moments when surely Giles must want to yell at her to go and do her sacred duty like every other Slayer before her. Fortunately there are no moments like that here. Sophie is a well trained and dedicated Slayer, and Spike has returned to the vicious monster and dedicated boyfriend that hasn’t been seen since his debut in School Hard.

Author Christopher Holden later went on to write the excellent Lost Slayer books and knows how to write a book that gives the Buffyverse greater depth. Taking Buffy out of the story completely shifts the focus to two very popular bad guys and allows the reader to gain a greater insight into the world before Buffy.

Verdict

An excellent book that gives the reader in insight into Spike and Dru’s life together.

The copyright of the article Review - Spike and Dru Pretty Maids All in a Row in Teen Fiction Series is owned by Christopher Sharman. Permission to republish Review - Spike and Dru Pretty Maids All in a Row in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.