'Blood Lines' Blood series #3 by Tanya HUFF

From the BLURB:

Sealed away through unending centuries in a sarcophagus never meant to be opened, he had patiently waited for the opportunity to live again, for the chance to feed on the unwary and grow strong. Now, at last, the waiting had come to an end. Brought to the Egyptology Department of Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, the seals and spells that imprisoned him shipped away by his discoverers, he reached forth to claim the minds and souls of the unsuspecting city dwellers, to begin building an empire for himself and his god. And only three people had even the hint that anything was wrong.

For Henry Fitzroy, 450-year-old vampire, it began with a haunting, inescapable image of the sun, a terrifying symbol of death to one such as he. Fearing for his sanity, he called upon his sometime-lover and comrade in supernatural investigations, ex-cop Vicki Nelson, for help. And even as the two struggled to cope with Henry's obsession, Vicki's closest friend and former partner, Police Detective Mike Celluci was following up on two mysterious deaths at the museum, certain he was looking at murders, not accidents -- and equally convinced that the killer was a mummy brought back from the dead!

I really enjoyed this third novel of Tanya Huff’s ‘Blood’ series. I really didn’t like book #2, ‘Blood Trail’, because of the lack of development between the series’ supposed love interests, Henry and Vicki. I still have the same problem with Henry and Vicki’s under-developed relationship, but the mystery plot of ‘Blood Lines’ went a long way to making up my waning interest in this series.

In this book an Egyptian mummy is terrorizing Toronto. Mike Celluci is on the case, but he soon realizes that the supernatural element is over his head, so he enlists the help of his ex-partner Vicki Nelson, and her vampire side-kick, Henry Fitzroy.

The villain is a century’s old, previously entombed, Egyptian wizard/high-priest. I loved the Egyptian mummy plot of this book. So much so that I want to go out and read other books with a mummy/zombie plot. If you loved the 1999 film ‘The Mummy’ then this book is right up your alley. Sticking a mummy in modern-day (1990’s) Toronto made for a fabulously twisted whodunit with a fresh supernatural bent.

In about the last 3 or 4 chapters the stakes are raised to incredible heights as the mummy has Vicki in its sights and is hell-bent on eating her ‘ka’ (life force). Vicki is put into a situation no ex-cop wants to be in, and it’s a mad dash to the books finish line to see if Vicki can save herself, and stop Toronto from becoming an Egyptian monument.

I did love the action of this book. I’ve never read a mummy plot before (the closest I’ve come is Gail Carriger’s ‘Changeless’) and I loved how unique this supernatural story was.
My rating for this book is entirely thanks to the mummy plot. The character development however, once again left much to be desired...

I’m still uncomfortable with the development (or lack of) between Henry and Vicki. In this book there are lots of revelations concerning Vicki’s relationship (past and present) with Mike Celluci, and Henry’s feelings for Vicki. But still, I was unhappy with what Huff has to offer..... And once again the crux of my complaint is centred on Henry’s sexual relationship with ex street-rat and Vicki’s nineteen-year-old friend/informant, Tony.

Below is a scene that takes place outside of Henry’s apartment; Vicki is leaving as Tony is about to head in to see Henry;

“Hey, Victory, don’t sweat it.” As though he’d read her mind, Tony’s voice softened. “It’s easier for me. I didn’t really have a life till he showed up. He can remake me any way he wants. You’ve been you for a long time. It makes it harder to fit the two of you together.”
You’ve been you for a long time. She felt some of the tension begin to leave her shoulders. If anyone could understand that, it would be Henry Fitzroy. “Thanks, Tony.”
“No problem.” The cocky tone returned. “You want me to hail you a cab?”
“No.”
“Then I better get upstairs.”
“Before you split your jeans?”
“Jeez, Victory,” she could hear the grin in his voice, “I thought you couldn’t see in the dark.”

That scene is the most reaction readers get from Vicki concerning Henry’s relationship with Tony. Tony all but says he loves Henry and yes, he will be sleeping with him tonight, and Vicki merely sends him on his way. I’m still uncomfortable (on Vicki’s behalf) about the Henry/Tony pairing. But I’m mostly frustrated with Tanya Huff for dropping that massive bombshell and never delving deeper.

I’ve read through Amazon reviews of the ‘Blood’ series, to see specifically if other readers were disquieted by Tony’s role in Henry’s life. I only found one other reviewer who expressed dislike, and that was to do with the fact that Henry has a sexual penchant for men, as well as women. I like a good M/M romance as much as the next person, that’s not my problem (I actually wish that Huff had made Tony and Henry the series main HEA focus, throwing Vicki in makes things awkward and seedy). My problem is with the fact that Vicki is okay with her friend and protégé whom she has card for since he was 15, carrying on a sexual relationship with the same man that she is sleeping with. Ick.

Huff sheds a bit more light on Vicki and Mike’s past relationship, thereby exposing Vicki’s flaws. Turns out that while Vicki and Mike were ‘dating’ for 4 years, they were never exclusive. Vicki slept with other men, Mike with ‘bimbettes’. Vicki and Mike were perfectly alright with this set-up. But with the introduction of Henry, Mike suddenly wants a little more commitment from Vicki. He is even, *gasp*, contemplating settling down with her. But Mike dares not approach with Vicki, because he is well aware of her personal hang-ups.
Vicki is quite damaged when it comes to intimacy. Her father left her mother for a younger woman when Vicki was a child, and it seems that indiscretion has coloured Vicki’s entire romantic outlook. It sort of explains why Vicki is okay with having an open relationship with both Henry and Mike, and why the lack of definition regarding her and Henry’s partnership doesn’t faze her.

I think Huff has given Vicki too much baggage. Not only does she have a degenerative eye disease that meant she had to leave the job she loved, but Vicki puts on a macho/ballsy front in order to over-compensate for having lived and worked in a male dominated environment. She also has daddy abandonment issues and therefore cannot commit and cannot view sex as anything other than a temporary pleasure. It’s all a little too much, and almost turns Vicki into a caricature. She comes across as very angry, ‘the world is out to get me’ and nobody loves me. Urgh. It gets to be a little too much at times. If Huff had only made Henry (or Mike!) the one shining light in her life, the one point in which she can let her guard down and enjoy something. Instead, in this book both Henry and Mike lay their feelings about Vicki on the line... and she ignores them. Or as Vicki succinctly puts it:

It’s just like a man to want to complicate a perfectly good relationship.

Admittedly I wasn’t really buying Henry’s proclamations of love when he delivered them to Vicki (especially because he thinks similar thoughts about Tony, but Huff never addresses the double-up). I think Henry’s declaration of love came too soon and with too little development on his and Vicki’s relationship. But regardless of that, it was frustrating the way Vicki donned her armour and refused to acknowledge Mike or Henry’s professions of love. Grr! Huff is making Vicki very hard to swallow.

I did like this book. I appreciated Huff’s attempt to shed some more light on Vicki’s feelings for Henry and Mike... but it was a case of being ‘a day late and a dollar short’ when Huff already dropped the Henry/Tony/Vicki bomb in book #2 and once again refused to examine it in book #3. The mummy mystery saved this book and ensured I’d kept reading...

3.5/5

'Blood Trail' Blood series #2 by Tanya HUFF

From the BLURB:

When a pack of werewolves is discovered on an Ontario farm, Henry Fitzroy, a Toronto-based vampire and writer of romance novels, calls upon private investigator Vicki Nelson to help him trace the trail of destruction to the killers.

I did enjoy this book, to an extent. In this novel Vicki and Herny travel to London, Ontario (I did not know there was a London in Canada!) to investigate a slew of werewolf deaths. The ‘whodunnit’ is intriguing and well-crafted, the werewolf mythology is smart and fresh, and some wonderful secondary characters are introduced…

BUT, there was one minor point I had a big problem with, and that’s what is influencing this entire review.

In ‘Blood Price’ a character called Tony Foster was introduced. He is a nineteen-year-old ‘street kid’ who Vicki knew in her previous life as a cop. She first met Tony when he was 15, and has used him as her eyes and ears on the street, while also trying to look after him. Many times Vicki laments Tony’s situation, especially because he’s been prone to hooking when money is tight and she’s concerned about AIDS. In ‘Blood Price’ Vicki was forced to introduce Tony to Henry… and when ‘Blood Trail’ opens we learn that Henry has gone beyond that initial meeting to become Tony’s lover, landlord and employer - all in exchange for Tony’s blood donations.

Ummm… I wasn’t okay with that.

For one thing: Tony and Henry having a sexual relationship before Vicki and Henry sort of deflated the sexual tension for me. Especially because for the five months between ‘Blood Price’ and ‘Blood Trail’, Henry has been refusing Vicki’s advances – blaming it on the injuries she received at the end of ‘Blood Price’. Henry claims he is waiting for Vicki to recover from her blood loss… yet for five months he’s been (presumably?) having sex and taking blood from Tony?

The other ‘ick’ for me was the fact that Vicki and Tony are friends – but their friendship borders very close to a maternal relationship, at least according to my interpretation. Vicki has been looking out for Tony since he was 15, and Tony has likewise looked up to Vicki as an icon of sorts.

At one point Vicki muses on the fact that Tony has matured since meeting Henry, and that her and Tony’s dynamic feels less child/adult and more adult/adult in recent months. And yet, it’s still a case of (for me) one of Vicki’s friends screwing around with the guy she’s had her eye on. Not cool! True, in ‘Blood Trail’ Vicki and Henry have not had sex yet, so Tony was technically there first… but Tanya Huff set Vicki and Henry up as the main focus of the series.

I was further frustrated by all this Vicki/Henry/Tony stuff because Tanya Huff mentions it in passing, and so casually. There’s a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ scene in which we learn of Henry and Tony’s sex life – and I had to go back and re-read because I was so shell-shocked by it.

I was even less okay with Vicki’s reaction to the news. It was the sort of bomb that once dropped I wanted Vicki to deconstruct and analyse, but she didn’t.

Vicki, remaining true to her character, is less upset about Tony and Henry’s sexual relationship, and more insulted that Henry has done what she couldn’t … get Tony off the streets.

It got to the point where, the Tony/Henry revelation was so fascinating to me, and I felt such indignation on Vicki’s behalf, that I desperately wanted Vicki to address the issue and get properly annoyed with Henry. But she didn’t. And the more the topic was avoided and never again alluded to, the more frustrated I got… to the point where I think I kept reading, purely in the hopes that there would be a huge explosive confrontation… But there wasn’t. Huff does not address the pink elephant/vampire in the book.

Perhaps I could have dealt with my Henry/Tony issues if it became glaringly obvious that any relationship with Tony wouldn’t get in the way of Henry’s feelings for Vicki… except, the opposite happens in ‘Blood Trail’.

I was let down by Henry and Vicki’s first lovemaking. They finally have sex halfway through the book, Huff having masterfully built up tension and attraction – but it’s a very slap-dash coupling that feels almost seedy;

Her fingernails traced intricate patterns along his spine. “You feel great. This feels great.”

“Feels great,” he echoed, “but I’ve got to go.” He said it gently, as he sat up, one hand trailing along the slick length of her body. “The nights are short and if you want me to solve this case for you...”

“For the wer,” she corrected, yawning, too mellow to react to his smart-ass comment. “Sure, go ahead, eat and run.” She snatched her foot back, away from his grab, and watched him dress. “When can we do this again?”

To be fair, it’s not in Vicki’s character to be all gooey and sentimental, not even post-coitus. But Henry is a romance writer, and he’s from a time when there really were knights in shining armour. Sure, four hundred years may have hardened him to the world and being undead would certainly impact his personality… but this scene just felt so mechanical and unemotional.

Nor did it help that in the lead-up to the sex, Henry’s sole motivation was hunger. He needed to feed, and since he can’t feed from werewolves Vicki was meal… he makes no mention of wanting her for her, but only for her blood supply. I know vampires are cold, but that is just ridiculous.

Honestly, I thought Henry and Tony’s post-coitus talk was far more romantic. But if Henry and Vicki are supposed to be the main attraction, (of *this* series) shouldn’t it be the other way around? At this point I am actually wondering why Tony and Henry aren’t the HEA of this series?

With ‘Blood Trail’ I came to understand those modern reviewers who warned people off this series for its lack of smut.

I don’t like smut for smut’s sake (hello Laurell K Hamilton!) but sex scenes can often communicate a deeper attraction between characters than can be interpreted from dialogue, interaction etc. I think this book really would have benefited from some descriptive sex scenes. Because reading it, I thought; ‘Henry only wants Vicki for her blood. Vicki only wants Henry for his body. End of attraction’ – and I’m really not sure if that’s what Huff intended? And if it is… then why do I care about these characters and their relationship?

To be fair, I am only 2 books into this series. Henry is still very much the mysterious vampire – though we do garner a few more bits and pieces of his life (like his time as a spy in WWII). Henry is still developing, and Vicki and Henry’s relationship is still fresh… I’m sure there’s more progress to come.

Furthermore, I think Huff is trying to avoid clichés. Typically vampire characters fall into one of two categories – monster or lover. Writers either go the route of blood-sucking fiends, or neck-sucking Lotharios. I can appreciate that Huff is writing in Henry a vampire who is a bit more grounded in reality. He’s not sentimental – he has numerous lovers and doesn’t really intend to get too close to any of them. But still, when Vicki is already such a hard-nut character, equally allergic to ‘relationships’, it’s too much cold indifference for one coupledom. Especially since this is a series, and as readers we’re supposed to root for Vicki/Henry enough to want to read more of them, see if they get a happy ending etc, etc, etc.

I wasn’t particularly fond of this book, which is a shame after ‘Blood Price’ impressed me so much. The ‘whodunnit’ of ‘Blood Trail’ is brilliant. The werewolf mythology is wonderful and unique, and I enjoyed the introduction of some new secondary characters. But the big pit-fall for me lay in the development (or lack thereof) of Vicki and Henry, both as individuals, and as a couple.

2.5/5

'Blood Price' Blood series #1 by Tanya HUFF

From the BLURB:

It began with blood and death. And Vicki Nelson, PI was at the scene. The victim had been brutally, inhumanly opened up. Messy work. She'd had to cover the corpse with her coat. It had sort of made her feel involved. Now Vicki is caught up in the deadly pursuit of a mass murderer with an inhuman appetite for mayhem and destruction. And her advisor on the case is doing nothing to dampen her growing sense of foreboding. But then, with a being of unspeakable evil stalking the city, only Vicki Nelson would ally herself to Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate child of Henry VIII and a five-hundred-year-old vampire.

‘Blood Price’ is the first book in Huff’s ‘Blood’ series about Toronto Private Investigator, Vicki Nelson, and her vampire associate, Henry Fitzroy. The series concluded in 1997; finishing with 5 books, 1 omnibus of short stories, a trilogy spin-off series for one of the main protagonists and a Canadian TV series adaptation.

Tanya Huff paved the way for the Urban Fantasy genre by bringing vampires into modern day, and mixing them with crime fiction. Tanya Huff wrote ‘Blood Price’ back in 1991. Laurell K Hamilton’s first ‘Anita Blake’ book, ‘Guilty Pleasures’ didn’t come out until 1993 (guess that puts a stake in Ms. Hamilton’s blog rant earlier this year in which she called herself the founder of ‘Urban Fantasy’). Not even Jim Butcher’s ‘The Dresden Files’ came out until 2000. And Charlaine Harris’s first ‘Sookie Stackhouse: Southern Vampire’ book came out in 2001.

I heard about Tanya Huff via Charlaine Harris herself. Harris wrote a blog a while back when she did a re-read of Huff’s ‘Blood’ series, and Harris lauded her as one of the premiere Urban Fantasy authors.

At the height of my Urban Fantasy obsession, I bought Huff’s ‘Blood series’ dirt-cheap on ebay… and then promptly forget about them sitting on my shelf.

I thought it was high time I gave this series a read. I’ve been in a vampire-genre-stagnation of late. So I thought "what the hell?" - I’ll read one of the Urban Fantasy ‘classics’ to try and pull me out of my reading slump. I figured I’d read the first chapter, and if the book didn’t tickle my fancy I’d only paid AUD$2 for it, so what?

Surprisingly, one chapter had me addicted….

The book starts with a death on a subway platform.

What really grabbed my attention was female protagonist Vicki Nelson. Tanya Huff jam-packs the opening chapter with so much wonderful characterisation that it’s impossible not warm to Vicki from the get-go.

When we meet her she is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Coming home from a bad blind date on the Toronto subway, Vicki hears a blood-curdling scream and runs to the source… where she finds a decapitated young man. Vicki jumps train tracks and completely disregards her police training when she hears the terrified throes of a dying man.

First on the scene is Vicki’s ex-partner and ex bed-mate, detective Mike Celluci. Mike and Vicki had an eight-year police partnership, which included a four-year sexual relationship, which ended badly when Vicki retired from the police force.

We learn that Vicki was a homicide detective, and has been off the force for eight months. Vicki resents her retirement, but we discover that it was self-imposed – Vicki’s eyesight is failing and she left before being asked to leave. Vicki is suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa – a degenerative eye disease. Vicki is in the early stages, which means she has night blindness and tunnel vision.

You couldn’t be a cop if you couldn’t see.

She’d made her bed. She’d lie in it.

All of this character history comes in quick succession, and Huff assuredly has readers rooting for Vicki. In just one scene Huff communicates that Vicki is brave, reckless where the safety of others are concerned… she puts others before herself, and will even sacrifice herself and the career she loves for the ‘greater good’. Her personal relationships take a backseat to her career, and even though she forced herself to give up the job she loved, she is a trooper and trying to carry on with her life the best she can.

Henry Fitzroy is an equally fascinating protagonist. Henry and Vicki meet when the media dub Toronto’s serial killer a ‘vampire’, because of the drained blood of the victims. Henry, the only (to his knowledge) vampire living in Toronto becomes concerned and takes it upon himself to find the killer…. Whereupon he meets P.I. Vicki Nelson, who is also on the case. They decide to join forces – Vicki working the day, Henry the night shift.

Henry is based on the real illegitimate son of King Henry VIII of England. Henry, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, was a genuinely interesting historical figure. He died at the age of 17 after a becoming bed-ridden by a mystery illness. The circumstances surrounding Henry’s death were bizarre, but his funeral was even stranger. Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, ordered Henry’s body be wrapped in lead and taken for a secret interment.

Henry is a wonderful undead leading man. Not only has Huff turned historical factoids into a fairly plausible and reasonable history for Henry, but she’s made him into a really fascinating modern-day vampire. Henry is a poet, deep down, and in his latest career manifestation he’s started writing historical romances (‘bodice-rippers’) under the pseudonym ‘Elizabeth Fitzroy’.

I read some reviews of the ‘Blood’ series, written by Sookie and Twilight fans… and they all warned that while ‘Blood’ was an enjoyable series; it lacked the ‘heat’, the smut that has become trade-mark of the Urban Fantasy genre in recent years. I tend to disagree.

I really loved the Henry/Vicki pairing. On one level, they make a great sleuthing team. I loved the contrast of their abilities – Henry who is imprisoned by daylight, and Vicki who is blind at night.

More than that though, Vicki and Henry have real heat. I didn’t expect them to – I was all geared up to be disappointed in a lukewarm romance, judging from other people’s reviews – but I responded quite differently to the pairing.

Vicki and Henry are opposites, and both are trying to deny their attraction. Vicki, because things are complicated enough with Mike Celluci and she’s still trying to wrap her head around the whole ‘vampire’ thing. And Henry wants to deny his feelings because he’s lived through 455-years worth of loss, and doesn’t particularly want to add Vicki to the long list of mortals he’s had to say goodbye to.

Vicki and Henry are certainly no Cat & Bones, but they do have spark. Their relationship in this first book is more along the lines of Kate & Curran in Ilona Andrews’s series. Furthermore, Huff is very cluey about vampiric mythology, and through the Vicki/Henry partnership she is able to explore that popular metaphor of vampire and lust.

Certainly if ‘Blood Price’ was being written for today’s market, Huff may have been encouraged to include a bit more smut…. But I don’t think its lack detracts from the book. And actually I think Huff beautifully sets up a Vicki/Henry/Mike love triangle for future novels. I definitely got the impression that Huff didn’t want to lay all her cards on the table in this first book, but that there was going to be a slow-burning romance for Henry and Vicki…

“But you wouldn’t have lived as long as you have if you hadn’t figured out how to learn from your mistakes. When I find this person, I’m going to need you for backup.”

“Well, thank you very much.” Just what he needed, being patronized by someone whose ancestors had no doubt been grubbing out a living on a peasant’s plot when he’d been riding beside a king. He pulled his hand out from under hers and tried not to wince when the motion twisted the wound in his arm.

“Before you get snooty, Your Royal Highness, perhaps you should consider who the hell else I can use? Trust me on this one, suspicion of demon-calling is not likely to impress the police. I don’t even think it’s a crime.”

I expected ‘Blood Price’ to be quite outdated, since it was written way back in 1991. But surprisingly, this book has aged very well. The only hints that this isn’t set in modern day are the lack of cell-phone and Internet usage. But those technical omissions are barely noticeable.

I loved this book. The mystery is intriguing, the characters flawed and wonderful. There’s definitely heat between Vicki and Henry, more than I expected (judging from nay-saying reviews).

If you are a fan of the old-school Anita Blake books, this series is for you.

Tanya Huff is writing this series based on her own vampiric mythology – borrowing from the greats like Bram Stoker, Vlad the Impaler and European folklore. As opposed to more recent UF authors who are amalgamating their lexicons from more modern stories and pop-culture references. It’s refreshing, and just what I needed to pull me out of my vampire-genre slump.

I’ll definitely be reading the next 4 books.

5/5