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VAMPIRES OF MANHATTAN by Melissa de la Cruz

VAMPIRES OF MANHATTAN

by Melissa de la Cruz

Pub Date: Sept. 9th, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2471-1
Publisher: Hachette

De la Cruz’s new adult series based on her Blue Bloods books for teens (Gates of Paradise, 2013, etc.) starts off with a fang.

The Upper East Side is no longer the hub of activity for Manhattan’s elite underground coven of fallen angels who live among humans as vampires. Ten years after defeating Lucifer in an epic battle, the Blue Bloods have grown up and moved to trendier parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn to keep evil at bay while building their fine art collections and wishing their immortality could extend to their marriages. Jumping quickly between narrators and time frames, the lengthy exposition plays out like a television drama centering on the Four Hundred Ball, where Oliver Hazard-Perry will be anointed leader of the vampire coven with his “mortal beloved,” Finn Chase, at his side. But Finn is growing tired of feeling like a second-class citizen, and her attempts to rebel are the stuff of tabloids. So are Kingsley Martin’s. Left to rot in hell—literally—by his wife, Mimi, Kingsley’s New York homecoming takes a creepy turn when he’s linked to a missing teenage girl. Mimi, who now works in an art gallery, is busy preparing a curious collection of artwork painted in red blood for the ball, though she clearly misses Kingsley and wants him to stay. Working behind the scenes to keep the celebration from becoming a blood bath are vampire detective Ara Scott and her newly assigned partner, werewolf Edon Marrok; they track a killer who has left a trail of bloody pentagrams throughout the city. Following leads while trying not to expose the vampires to the mortal world, the investigators uncover some of the story’s most scandalous details as they find security breaches that signal trouble for humans and vampires alike. Jack and Schuyler fans will have to wait until the epilogue for an update, but it comes with a teaser for the next book.

Over-the-top drama and a breezy pace leave more to look forward to in the series.