Hellsing, Volume 9 by Kohta Hirano

Alucard continues to fight Father Anderson on the streets of London, and succeeds in killing the seemingly unkillable priest. But the arrival of Walter Dorneaz, Sir Integra Hellsing's butler, in a younger, more powerful body, signals that the traitor in her organization was Walter, and had been for a long, long time.

Integra tells Alucard to take care of Walter and show no mercy, while she and Seras Victoria continue forward to meet with the head of the Nazis that have invaded London with their troops and weapons. As they do, Seras is diverted into a fight with a man who can turn into a wolf. But can Seras defeat him, or is he too powerful for someone who has been a vampire for so short a time, even someone with a master like Alucard?

Meanwhile, Walter and Alucard fight, Walter with his mastery of strings/wires, and Alucard with his mastery of his own flesh and blood. But Walter may not be completely himself. Is it possible that when he changed into a vampire, that some other spirit may have taken control of his body? And with his body starting to disintegrate, will he manage to remain in control and in one piece through the coming battle, or will it only help Alucard destroy him even faster?

Integra, meanwhile, must deal with the fact that Walter has betrayed her from the very beginning, and the feelings that engenders in her, while she has a showdown with the Nazi who set the entire plan into motion... apparently to give all his soldiers and followers something to do! But will she and her Protestant Knights be able to save London before the followers and advisors to the Queen nuke the city in a final bid to end the menace once and for all?

This book continued the Nazi invasion of London, and true to form, it was 75% fighting and the rest philosophical crap. Meditations on why Vampires fight, in the form of musings from Father Andrew Alexander and Sir Integra's father, and maunderings from the Head Nazi about the nature of power, I found the book to be a mix of excitement and boredom. The fighting was exciting, the rest... not so much.

On the other hand, I do want to know how this ends, so I'll continue reading, but I found this volume both more intense and somehow less interesting than the first few, when we are introduced to Alucard and the Hellsing Organization. So, it's still a good series, but the crap to good ratio is edging higher. Too much more, and I'll stop reading this series.