Blood Lines

Blood Noun: 4

ISBN: 0-88677-530-2 Order from: Amazon.com

A dark fantasy with a hard-boiled female detective, assisted by human and vampire friends against the menace of ancient sorcery.

Reviewed by David on November 25, 1998

Genre: Fantasy (Mystery, Vampires)

Synopsis: In a seemingly common world where vampires and other monsters hide behind the modern and multicultural life of Toronto, Vicki Nelson, a former police detective, tries to solve a series of murders originating in a museum. The crimes are baffling because the evidence keeps vanishing. The only explanation is magic, magic that threatens not just Vicki but her entire country.

Full Review: Vicki is an interesting character. A bright and capable detective, she is still bitter about the illness which forced her off the police force.

When a well-preserved Egyptian sarcophagus is opened in a Toronto museum, the coffin is found to contain a corpse wrapped in magical bindings. However, when the mummy disappears, and several deadly heart attacks take place in and around the museum, the police detective Mike Celluci, his former partner Vicki Nelson and her vampire friend Henry start to look for a supernatural villain. However, this villain is skilled in politics, and is ready to use not just sorcery but the police itself against the beings on his trail. The story keeps up the tension until the very end, and completes on a positive but slightly ambiguous note, plunging the friends deeper into the supernatural world, while the rest of the city returns to blissful ignorance of magic.

This series (this novel is preceded by Blood Trail and followed by Blood Pact), is similar in setting to the Anita Blake novels. Huff's supernatural aspects a bit less solid than one might wish, and the histrionic argumentation between Vicki and Mike is slightly overdone.

Nevertheless, Vicki and her friends are well-drawn, behaving with all the passion, courage, pettiness and honesty of good but imperfect people under pressure. There is humor and lust, fear and pride in their actions, and the characters make this book an entertaining joy.

Overall: 6; Plot: 5.5; Characters: 6.5; Style: 6; World-building: 6; Originality: 7;

ISBN: 0-88677-530-2 Order from: Amazon.com