Sarah Dearly is adjusting to life as a fledgling vampire, satisfying her cravings at vampire-friendly blood banks. But when her fiance Thierry takes a job with the Ring—the secret council in charge of keeping vampires in line—Sarah’s about to get more than a taste of danger…

Being engaged to a centuries-old master vampire can be challenging—especially when he takes a job with the Ring. Thierry’s in for fifty years of nonstop travel and deadly risk. It’s enough to make any woman reconsider the wedding…any woman except Sarah, that is!

Traveling with him to Las Vegas for his first assignment, they encounter a child beauty pageant contestant from hell, as well as a vampire serial killer leaving victims drained of blood, potentially exposing the existence of vampires to the whole world. But when Thierry’s truly ancient history comes back to haunt him, and he’s accused of a crime he didn’t commit, it’s up to Sarah to clear his name before their immortal lives come to an end.

Review

For fans of:  Sarah Zettel, Charlaine Harris, Gerry Bartlett

Sarah Dearly is a fledgling vampire, having been sired against her will on a blind date seven short months ago. Her parents have retired to Florida, her best male friend has moved to Hawaii, and her best female friend is relocating to Vancouver, but she won’t let this sudden tsunami of change bring her down.  Why?  Because she has Thierry de Bennicoeur by her side.  Thierry, the 600-year-old master vampire who’s asked Sarah to be his bride – who will spend the rest of eternity by her side, and who will never desert her.  Or so Sarah thought, anyway, until Thierry broke the news that he’s signed on for a 50-year stint with a secret vampire council known as The Ring – a job that will require non-stop travel, and which will place him in near-constant peril. And what’s more, Thierry has no intention of taking Sarah with him on his journeys for fear that she’ll end up in danger, as well.

 Sarah isn’t going to let Thierry go without a fight, though, and insists on accompanying him wherever he’s dispatched, danger be damned. So when Thierry receives his first assignment – to fly to Vegas and help track down a vampire serial killer who’s preying on tourists – Sarah goes with him.  It should be a safe and simple task, but upon their arrival, Thierry’s Ring contact – a vampire named Bernard – is staked through the heart. As it turns out, not only does Thierry share a long and rocky history with Bernard, but the two had a very public disagreement shortly before Bernard was killed, and it isn’t long before the Ring takes Thierry into custody under suspicion of murder. With a killer still at large and the human body count on the rise, Sarah must clear Thierry’s name – or her eternity is going to be very lonely one, indeed.

Blood Bath & Beyond is the first in Michelle Rowen’s new Immortality Bites Mystery series. I finished this book yesterday, and I confess, even after a good night’s sleep, I’m still not sure what I think of it.  Rowen’s characters are a bit of a mixed bag. Sarah is an incredibly upbeat (and rather naive) vampire, and while her altruism makes her intriguing to other vampires (most of whom don’t share this particular trait), it doesn’t have a similar effect on the reader.  Sarah’s likable, but rather blandly so, and while she does start to develop a little more of an edge toward the end of the book, she has a ways to go before she becomes a truly compelling heroine.  Victoria, the 100-year-old vampire trapped in a 6-year-old’s body, is amusing, and I like the fact that she retains a lot of the traits of the child she was when she was turned; unfortunately, however, Rowen hasn’t quite worked out all the kinks in her character yet, and she therefore comes across as a bit of a walking contradiction.

That’s not to say the whole cast is flawed, though; Thierry’s a great love interest, and his affection for Sarah coupled with his violent and bloody past make him one of Rowen’s more intriguing creations, and tormented psychic Kristopher helps add some much-needed darkness to Rowen’s world. I’m also looking forward to reading more about Ring-enforcer Markus – a vampire hunter turned vampire, who’s determined to uncover the secrets of Thierry’s shadowy past if it’s the last thing he does.

Rowen’s prose is a bit rough around the edges and is heavy on the exposition, but it’s not without its charm. The book’s setup is a little convoluted for my taste, but the mystery is quite clever and features no shortage of expertly deployed clues and red herrings.  Rowen takes a good 80 pages or so to settle into her groove, but once she does, the pace picks up, and the story starts to suck you in.  The tone is somewhat uneven, as the book can't quite decide if it wants to be a comedic mystery/paranormal romance hybrid or something slightly darker; Rowen introduces some unique and intriguing characters and concepts over the course of her tale, and they conspire to make some nice dramatic moments, but they’re too frequently undercut by Sarah’s overly sunny narrative style. Things get a little less schizophrenic toward the end of the story, though, and that, coupled with the book’s thrilling conclusion and the nice groundwork Rowen lays for the next installment in the series are enough to make me want to stick and find out what happens next.

Reviewed by Kat N.

READERS COMMENTS