Norm Applegate's latest in the Kim Bennett series, Blood Bar, opens with Erin Roberts, a vampire hunter, killing a young role-playing vampire, Drach, as part of an attempt to avenge her father's death. Applegate then jumps to the main heroine of the story, Kim Bennett, who doesn't believe in vampires, but after being called to investigate the murder of Drach by his lover, her friend, Rose, she finds herself delving deep into the unknown and questioning her skepticism of the existence of vampires. Kim also stumbles into another mystery along the way involving a legendary Black Testament, an ancient vampire scroll that has been torn into pieces and scattered about the city. Kim races against the clock to locate all the pieces before Erin does, and is shocked at the discoveries hidden within the Black Testament.
A good mix of paranormal mystery and thriller lie within the pages of Blood Bar as the heroine searches out the answers to both the murder and the Black Testament. Also in the mix are some mild sex scenes as the two main female characters are both involved in the S&M world. The sex scenes, unfortunately, are randomly tossed in and are mediocre at best. Based on the cover blurb I had assumed a much more erotic read, so anyone looking to pick this title up based on those excerpts might want to pass this one up for something of a more erotic nature. The lack of editing was also troublesome. There were many typos and grammatical errors that could easily have been fixed with one or two read-throughs by an amateur proofreader. However, if you can overlook the lack of editing and mediocre erotic scenes, Blood Bar does have an interesting plot that, with some touch-ups, could have been a great story. Fans of the vampire sub-genre may feel it's worth picking up this novel to add another vampire title to their collection or "read list", though some, as I was, may be a bit disappointed.
Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations, Sexual Situations, Violence
Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com
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