Jennifer Rardin, The Deadliest Bite

The Deadliest Bite

Jennifer Rardin

Orbit, Jun 22 2011, $13.99

ISBN: 9780316043816

Jaz Parks knows she is in the end game for who owns her soul and body. She hopes to keep the former though the Great Taker salivates over having her; and shares the latter with Brude the demon. Her only way to rid herself of Brude is extracting him from her head, which can only occur in hell where the Great Taker covets her return.

Meanwhile Jaz's lover and teammate Vayl is under attack. Roldan the werewolf sent the reincarnation of one of Vayl's sons to assassinate him. To survive, the pair and the rest of the crew (Raoul, Cole, Bergman, Cassandra, Dave, Jack and robokitty) head to Romania, first stop on the way to hell and hopefully back.

This is a fitting tribute to one of the better urban fantasy writers on the market as Jennifer Rardin passed away in September after finishing her eighth and final Jaz Parks thriller. The story line, like the entire series (see Bite Marks and Bitten In Two) is a fabulous fast-paced tale as the two and half century old vampire and his avhar assassin along with the rest of the gang work the two issues confronting them. Fans of the saga will agree that Ms. Parks pays fitting homage to herself with this strong final entry.

Harriet Klausner