I definitely missed Kiss of the Dead, because I think I would have remembered that (if only out of absolute horror). The more we talk about this, and the more I remember the tone of the initial couple of books, the more I feel like this is some kind of parallel universe. Now I look back, there are a few hints of what it'd turn into, but they are now flanderized beyond belief, it's like bad fanfic. LKH is writing her own bad fanfic.