Author: Michelle Rowen
Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Signet
Series: Immortality Bites Mysteries # 2
Fledgling vampire Sarah Dearly knew what she was getting into when she married master vampire Thierry de Bennicoeur. As an agent of the Ring, Thierry is sent all over the world to solve vampire crimes and keep them secret from humans. And now Sarah’s on the job with him—for better or worse.
Right after their wedding in Las Vegas, Sarah and Thierry get their next assignment: Three vampires have gone missing in Salem, Massachusetts, and they need to find out why. Their contact in Salem turns out to be a local lothario with a penchant for witches, but before he can help them, he suddenly goes up in smoke—leaving behind nothing but a stain on the ground and a seemingly impossible mystery.
Did a witchy ex-mistress cast a deadly spell, or is there something even more sinister happening to the vampires of Salem? Getting to the truth may require raising the undead, with a little help from the owners of a vampire-friendly bed and breakfast. But uncovering Salem’s darkest secrets may drag some of Thierry’s own past into the light.
Right after their wedding in Las Vegas, Sarah and Thierry get their next assignment: Three vampires have gone missing in Salem, Massachusetts, and they need to find out why. Their contact in Salem turns out to be a local lothario with a penchant for witches, but before he can help them, he suddenly goes up in smoke—leaving behind nothing but a stain on the ground and a seemingly impossible mystery.
Did a witchy ex-mistress cast a deadly spell, or is there something even more sinister happening to the vampires of Salem? Getting to the truth may require raising the undead, with a little help from the owners of a vampire-friendly bed and breakfast. But uncovering Salem’s darkest secrets may drag some of Thierry’s own past into the light.
Crystal balls have a lot in common with eyeballs. They both have the power to reveal hidden truths – that is, if you’re brave enough to look deeply.
Someone was watching me from the archway leading into the gift shop area. A man with black hair and black eyes. His attention was focused on me like a laser beam. His gaze was cold, hard, and endlessly unpleasant.
When I thought of Salem, of course I thought of witches. My knowledge of witches as a kid involved watching reruns of Bewitched – and I had the nose twitch down pat.
“So three vampires have gone missing while traveling through Salem,” Thierry said evenly, “and all three had spent a night with you.”
This is not my first read by Michelle Rowen, so I am very familiar with her paranormal writing style and I loved her first book in this cozy mystery series. She truly is a talented writer because she can write from the perspective of many different characters and color in the lines when it comes to writing different genres. I believe that this truly is a gift! But we are here to talk about this particular series in which our lovely heroine, Sarah Dearly, helps her husband solve mysteries having to do with the protection and safe-keeping of vampires. Whenever there is a problem, Sarah and Thierry are called in to help! In this series, in Sarah’s world, it is very important that vampires do not reveal themselves to humans or that humans never find out about the vampires living all around them. Sarah and Thierry are called to Salem in this book to investigate the disappearance of a few vampires. They just happen to pick up a creepy ghost along the way!
This book is no different from your regular cozy mysteries, although it may sometimes feel that way. I love the fact that we are dealing with mythical beings instead of humans, but I can see where this would bother some people. This book does have more of a paranormal feel, but it is written in good taste and still has that “cozy” feel as well. Things got a little creepy in this book for me actually. Sarah meets a ghost, whether he is friendly or not she is not quite sure, within the openings chapters and I must say that her encounters with him were spooky. Especially because it seemed like she was the only one who could see him! Small touches like this strange ghost are what makes Michelle Rowen’s writing so great; she always keeps you guessing.
The setting of this book was interesting to me, and I will always be attracted to stories that take place in Salem. Of course we all know what Salem is famous for, and I was so thrilled to see some talk of witches and witch hunters. When I found out that the eerie ghost that Sarah was seeing was a witch hunter, I knew things were about to get good. I love the mixture of vampires of witches and I love seeing them as two separate mythical beings, not just thrown together in the same category. They each have something different to bring to the table. I felt that as far as the paranormal was concerned, Rowen did an excellent job keeping it more about the mystery and less about the paranormal, but never fear! There is enough paranormal mixed in to keep anyone happy. And of course we still have Sarah getting into trouble as always!
***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Signet in exchange for my honest review***
Nice review! Read this totally not realizing it was book 2 in the series. I kept debating about reading this one. Only because I have sooooo many books to read as it is! But I love the cozy paranormal mysteries! They're the only kind I read when it comes to mystery! Gotta have some paranormal threads to them and this sounds perfect for me!
ReplyDeleteFrom the sounds of it, I think you might also like Victoria Laurie if you haven't already read her books. She has two series, Psychic Eye Mysteries--which has a psychic who solves mysteries using her abilities--and then there's The Ghost Hunter Mysteries--which has a ghost getter (who actually popped up in one of the earlier Psychic Eye books) and the series has taken her career to new heights, but she basically goes to haunted places in order to communicate with a spirit or send it elsewhere if it's a bad one and somehow there's always a murder or similar mystery to occur--kind of like Murder She Wrote, now that I think of it!
So yeah, great review!! Going to have to add book 1 to my never ending TBR mountain!