Blood Groove

I'm not a fan of vampires. I liked them when I was a kid, when they were the villains and not the heroes–and definitely when they weren't 100-year-old sparkly-skinned pedos hanging out in high schools.

However, I am a fan of great prose. Having read all of Alex Bledsoe's other series (the fun swordplay romps of Eddie LaCrosse, and the tremendous Tufa novels), it was either read about vampires, or suffer through a drought waiting for whatever he brings us next. I chose to go with reading about vampires.

And I'm glad I did.

Sent in Memphis, Tennessee in the mid-70's, a European vampire, the charming and intelligent Rudolfo Zginski, finds himself in unfamiliar waters. Brought back to life after decades spent as a corpse after being staked, he finds himself falling in with a coven of young vampires who don't fully understand what they are and what they can do, and battling a new drug whose sole intent seems to be to destroy vampires.

Frankly, the plot grooves, the descriptions and prose feel like something best-suited for the big screen of a late-night, 1970's drive-in. Everything about this book is so delightfully 1970's that it made me feel like I needed bell-bottoms and a wide collar just to fit in while reading it. And, while I'm generally not a fan of vampires, I liked this book a lot. Bledsoe can flat-out write. His background in journalism gives him that strong, move-it-along prose that sings. He's not bogged down in thick metaphors or marveling at his own genius–the man has a story to tell, and by god he's gonna tell it.

This book grooves like some old fuzzy-bass funk. I'll get around to reading the second book in the series, The Girls with Games of Blood, before too long, I'm sure.

If you're up for some 70's nostalgia, some righteous prose, and a blood-sucking good time, check this one out.