Kitty Goes to Washington is about Kitty Norville being informed by her lawyer Ben O'Farrell that she has been summoned by the Senate Subcommittee hearings to testify on Paranormal Biology. The committee wants to know if it is safe for the paranormal community to live among the human population. Senator Joseph Duke wants to prove that the Weres and the Vampires are monsters, and that they are not fit to live among Homo Sapiens. He is willing to do anything to prove his point; even kidnapping and violating privacy.
The politicking of the human world is not as fascinating as the politicking of the paranormal world. Kitty, upon arrival in Washington, D.C., is placed under the protection of the vampire mistress Alette. She is powerful vampire. Her power comes from her connections throughout the Washington, D.C. area. Alette feels the Were community is not safe. We find out this is because it doesn't have an alpha. Instead, the community is comprised of different kinds of Weres who meet at the Crescent, a local Were bar. Its owner, Ahmed, is the unofficial alpha. He didn't fight for the honor of being alpha, but still the various Weres turn to him. Ahmed has a laid-back attitude and doesn't get involved with the human or the vampire politics.
We also meet the sexy were-jaguar, Luis. He is with the Brazilian Consulate. Kitty and Luis are attracted to each other. She feels safe with him. Their relationship grows, but will it be lasting? Another character we meet is German Were Fritz Perlmutter. Every day at four in the afternoon he comes in to have a glass of schnaps. Fritz has a fascinating story about Weres and the army, which Kitty would love to interview him for on the Midnight Hour radio show.
We meet some familiar characters from book one, such as Cormac Bennett, Ben O'Farrell, Dr. Paul Flemming and Elijah Smith. Ben O'Farrell represents Kitty at the Senate Subcommittee hearings. He, along with Cormac, save Kitty when she gets involved in dangerous vampire politics. Dr. Paul Flemming is still trying to get funding for his program on Paranormal Biology. Elijah Smith turns out to be a being Kitty has never encountered before.
I liked this novel better than the first book, Kitty and the Midnight Hour. Kitty is more assertive. She is growing in confidence as a long werewolf without a pack. She still has some submissive moments. These moments, however, fit with her maturing personality. Kitty is becoming more independent and is developing a different viewpoint of what comprises a Were pack. I liked her character in this novel. The plot is more tightly written. The subplots lead up to the climax of the story. The descriptions were vivid, but not graphic. The dialogue flowed easily from character to character. The pacing slowed a bit during the Senate Subcommittee hearings, but more than made up for it in the last one-third of the novel. The narrator, Marguerite Gavin, for this audiobook included British and German accents for some of the newer characters. Gavin did a fair job with the accents and with differentiating among the characters' voices. Kitty Goes to Washington is a good continuation of the series. I look forward to listening to book number three, Kitty Takes a Holiday.