Author: E.H. Drake
Release date: 2024
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: How does one deal with life after death when death doesn’t seem any different… except the need for blood? As Gabe struggles with his new reality, Lily avoids all her responsibilities to him. But soon, their newest investigation makes confrontation inevitable. They are forced to run from human authorities and the vampire Court, all to protect a new comrade. Can the two resolve their differences and come together for the common good?
The review: This is the sequel to Blood Herring and the second of the trilogy. We meet Lily and Gabe again but Gabe has undergone changes – Lily turned him at the end of the last book as he was dying, despite his fairly anti-vampire viewpoint. Now his ex-partner is leading the Portland Vampire Police Bureaus, Lily seems to be avoiding him and he is having intensive control training. Lily is tying up lose ends in the Cheri Coke case (cocaine mixed with vampire blood) for the Vampire Court and she really has been avoiding seeing Gabe as she doesn’t know how to face the man she turned. There may also be problems, as yet unseen, as there was silver in her bloodstream when she turned him and that might have caused damage in the process.
However, when they end up meeting again she rashly decides to take him on an assignment and, when they find a vampire child, against her better judgement he becomes embroiled when they go on the run, trying to protect the child from the Court who exterminate such ‘abominations’. Olive, the child, is one of many such child vampires, they discover created as child soldiers and infiltrators by Elias – leader of the vampires who want to rule humanity. He, we discover, has more of an interest in Lily than will prove healthy for her.
There isn’t much in the way of additional lore from the first book but we do get a confirmation that the vampire creation myth includes the story of Lilith, who is the progenitor of their race. We also get the creation of more zombie like vampires (remembering that in this destroying the brain is key to killing vampires) through starvation until all reason has gone (starvation will eventually kill them) and the use of these zompires as shock troops. The writing is as crisp as the first, the book becoming a tad less police procedural and a little more action. This is a good addition to the series. 7.5 out of 10.
On Kindle @ Amazon US
On Kindle @ Amazon UK
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