A campy but robust vampire tale teeming with wit and otherworldly mystery.
A special agent must identify who among the vampires is purloining their steady supply of blood in this fourth installment of a supernatural series.
The purpose of Vampire Blood Supply is to provide vamps with blood that humans have voluntarily donated. Agent Samuel Johnson of Vampires Against the Evil is one of the Protectors who safeguard humanity from dangerous vamps, such as the Evil Ones, who prefer drinking blood straight from the human tap. VBS enlists Samuel’s help when blood donations wane and thefts—delivery-van hijackings—spike. The probable robbery suspect is Blood International, a delivery service looking to set up shop in central Iowa, where Samuel is stationed. BI’s real intent is to drive VBS out of business. But when Samuel trails carjackers for intelligence, he’s shocked to witness another group rob the culprits. Surmising that the second band comprises Evil Ones, he offers to help BI (which vaguely acknowledges that the sinister vampires are a “problem”) while covertly preventing the service from destroying VBS. In addition, he plans to unmask the spy inside VBS. The complex operation is quite the challenge for Samuel, as it involves infiltrating a secret BI facility and occasionally working alongside individuals he utterly despises, like the Evil Ones and stupid humans. Comedy, as in preceding series installments, is in abundance. For example, intermittent interviews (to pinpoint the VBS mole) are typically humorous, as with deliverywoman Patty Cline, who talks so incessantly that Samuel only manages a single question. But Carpenter (My Daze as a Vampire Hunter, 2017, etc.) augments the story with mystery, starting with the opening, in which people are pursuing Samuel through a maze of cornstalks. A corresponding bevy of characters, which the author deftly handles, will likely make the mole’s identity a surprise to many readers. Samuel’s casual narration, meanwhile, entails frequently addressing both the vampire and human audience. But his disdain for human readers eventually wears thin, implying, for one, that they can’t recall basic details of a VBS blood drive.
A campy but robust vampire tale teeming with wit and otherworldly mystery.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72019-160-5
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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