J.M. Jeffries Blood Lust

Blood Lust

J.M. Jeffries

Indigo (Genesis Press), Sep 2005, $9.95

ISBN: 1585711381

In 1745 Martinique, Master Charles Rabelais informs his slave Mignon Du Plessis that he sold their two preadolescent children. Distraught, but unable to do anything about his atrocity, Mignon is forced to endure the sexual needs of her owner, who reveals fangs and bites her neck.

In present day New Orleans, police Detective Ryan Lattimore, his superior, and another cop, stake out the city morgue in an attempt to capture the "Vampire Slayer". Suddenly a beautiful woman enters with an axe. He tries to intercede, but stops when he sees corpses begin to rise. She decapitates them before trying a chanting spell on the cop that shockingly fails. She drives away from the area while Ryan remains stunned.

Mignon is upset that he had not caught Charles because of the cop's involvement, which interfered with her assignment from the Vampire ruling Praetorium council to kill him. As she continues her work, Ryan catches up with Mignon, who takes him into an underworld he never imagined existed, even as the mortal, and the vampire are attracted to one another, an impossible scenario.

This action packed vampire romantic police procedural thriller rotates between the present and the 1740's, with most of the emphasis on today, though the past provides deep insight into the motivation of the heroine and the lunacy of Charles. The storyline moves at a lightning fast pace, but the key cast members are fully developed, including the ruling pro-life council; readers especially can feel the desire between the mortal cop and the bloodsucker, seemingly forbidden fruits. Readers will believe that vampires exist in this fine tale, that makes the supernatural species seem genuine as they live amongst us life short-timers.

Harriet Klausner