Blood Pact

Blood Noun: 4

ISBN: 0-88677-582-5 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com

A dark fantasy with a hard-boiled female detective, and macabre and improbable science.

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, is shocked when her mother dies. This shock turns into bewilderment and then into rage when her mother's body disappears just before the funeral. In a fog of grief and anger, Vicki is helped by her two lovers when she tries to investigate why her mother died and what happened to her corpse.

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.

This has perhaps the least probable plot of the "Blood Noun" series. While Vicki's reactions of guilt, shock, denial and anger are very well and sensitively portrayed, the plot mystery is clumsy and improbable. Taking a page from Shelley's Frankenstein, Huff creates a mad scientist (or three) as the villain. The scientific sections are implausible, the characters cartoonish (not uncommon in villains) and Henry, the powerful vampire, is jarringly vulnerable.

What redeems this novel is the very realistic anguish of Vicki, and the distress of her friends Mike Celluci and Henry Fitzroy. In addition, Huff breaks the tradition of nothing permanent happening to the hero of a series, and makes some real changes in Vicki's life.

This series (Blood Pact is preceded by Blood Lines and followed by Blood Debt), is similar in setting to the Anita Blake novels.

Overall: 6; Plot: 5; Characters: 6.5; Style: 6; World-building: 6; Originality: 7;

ISBN: 0-88677-582-5 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com