Blood Price (Vicki Nelson, Book 1)
Tanya Huff
Adult Paranormal/Horror
272 pages, softcover
Target Reader: Adults
DAW
978-0756405014
Release Date: 1991
(see note below)
From the publisher:
It began with blood and death. And Vicki Nelson, PI was at the scene.
The victim had been brutally, inhumanly opened up. Messy work. She'd had to cover the corpse with her coat. It had sort of made her feel involved. Now Vicki is caught up in the deadly pursuit of a mass murderer with an inhuman appetite for mayhem and destruction.
And her advisor on the case is doing nothing to dampen her growing sense of foreboding. But then, with a being of unspeakable evil stalking the city, only Vicki Nelson would ally herself to Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate child of Henry VIII and a five-hundred-year-old vampire.
I chose two more books to read on vacation that are the basis of another new television series, Blood Ties on the Lifetime channel. Unlike The Dresden Files, where I liked the TV show better than the book, I liked the books better than the show (although I did start to like the show more as the season went on).
Disclaimer: This is one of those books that I liked but cannot recommend whole-heartedly. So let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. There is a lot of swearing and some of it is really offensive. There is some sensuality and implied sex, but we aren't forced to read about the details. There's some pretty gross and descriptive violence. And there are vampires and demons. I didn't like the way it kept changing POV too abruptly. The flashbacks to Henry's past were sometimes confusing. And there were so many typos that I was tempted to mark it up with my red pen, mail it to DAW and ask for my money back. (I read The Blood Books, vol. 1 Omnibus, which contained both Blood Price and Blood Trail.)
So with all that, why do I say I like it? Well, first, I just like speculative fiction—like vampire stories. As long as the vampires are sort of good and not too scary. (I could not make it through The Historian. Gave me the heebie-jeebies.)
In addition, I like strong female characters who aren't afraid to go out into the world and make a difference. I like that Vicki Nelson is tough enough to fight the bad guys, even with the handicap of an eye disease (which I share—not the same disease, but the same results) that caused her to leave the police force. I like how she isn't dependent on anyone. Yes, she is sometimes rescued by the men, but she does her share of rescuing them too. I like Vicki's sense of humor. I like how she and Mike Celluci argue. And I really liked the story line. It kept me guessing.
If you like vampire stories and you can skip past the swearing and gore, then you'll probably like this book. If a hard PG-13 rating is too disturbing to you (and this was a close call for me), then you probably won't like the book. Will I read more? Uh, yes. Already did. (I bought two omnibus books.) But I probably won't buy any more of them. I'll borrow from the library instead.
The part of me that loved the basic plot and suspense gives this book a 4.0; the part of me that was offended by the swearing, violence and sexuality drops it to a 2.5.
Plot:
Characters:
Ending:
Cover:
Content Ratings
Language:
More swearing than I'm comfortable with.Violence:
Lots of murder and violence; gorey.Drugs/Alcohol:
Drinking.Immorality:
Overt sexuality, homosexuality. Too graphic.Values/Themes:
Dark.Age Appropriate:
For adults—definitely!Writing Mechanics:
Mostly editing/typesetting errors; some pacing and POV distractions.© 2010 It's a Book Affair
