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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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