Dying Bites

Jace Valchek is taken from this world and brought into a world where normal humanity are rare, where vampires and werewolves are quite common. Jace is an FBI profiler and is brought to investigate killings, a serial killer who appears to be human, is killing supernaturals in very particular places. She's got to adapt to a new world and investigate the killings. It's complicated and involved and I should have liked it more, but it's just a little bit off. I'm hoping it's just issues with the first book, because the concept is cool and it shows a lot of promise. Jace is nicely jaded but also wide-eyed with the situation she finds herself in. ( )

The world of The Bloodhound Files is, in my estimation, one of the more interesting written of today. Based upon a world in which humans are very much in the minority, the story pulls you in and doesn't let you go. As an FBI profiler, Jace Valchek is drawn across into a world filled by vampires, werewolves and golums, and humans are a tiny portion of the population.

This is definitely an 'edge of your seat' storyline. Jace is drawn into this new world by the equivalent of the head of the NSA, and is dumped directly into saving the world from madness - madness this world has never known before. And, even though these are the same "people" who actually pushed the humans to the edge of extinction, you can't help but like them. And Barant goes out of her way to make her Jace believable. She isn't a super-woman, but a hard working, tough minded woman working hard to get herself back home.

The story is excellent, the characters are likable (and 'hate-able' too) and everything is done very much like the very best of the mystery/suspense thrillers - just with vampires, werewolves, and golums. Politics, angst, interracial stressors, it is all there, and all facinating as seen from Barant's angle.

And yes, I own them all, and love them all . . .

The Bloodhound Files:

Dying Bites (The Bloodhound Files, Book 1)
Death Blows (The Bloodhound Files, Book 2)
Killing Rocks (The Bloodhound Files, Book 3)
Undead to the World: The Bloodhound Files ( )

A blend of action, police-procedural, and urban fantasy, DYING BITES is both a gateway drug and a satisfying book in this own right. ( )

I've read a large amount of urban fantasy, so I've become pretty picky in the process.

First off, this isn't remotely in the paranormal romance genre, so there aren't 30-page-long awkward attempts at porn, or a heroine that spends more time worrying about a guy's rock-hard abs instead of catching a murderer.

Rather, you have a thrill-ride of a book that reminds me a bit of the Rachel Caine "Weather Warden" books in tone. And, for once, we have a heroine/FBI agent who is much more concerned with the case than any peripheral drama--hallelujah!

I hope to see more books from D.D. Barant and more of this series! ( )

In a crowded genre, Dying Bites is fresh. The premise is so simple that it feels obvious, which is the mark of a really ingenious idea: Jace Valcheck is an FBI profiler pulled into another dimension, a same-yet-different world where humans make up only 1% of the population. In this new world, vampires and werewolves have all the physical advantages and all the political power; humans are barely scraping by.

There are some original twists on vamps and weres - like the spell that allows vampires to reproduce by donating biological years to their child, with the baby growing one year older for each six months the parents age - but the really fun new addition is golems. In Barant's world, the golems are technologically advanced versions of the clay statues of legend; a slaughtered animal's spirit is fused with sand and then poured into a plastic casing. The golems don't eat, don't sleep, don't have sex, and can't swim (they're too heavy!). Jace, as a weak human, is assigned a very intimidating golem bodyguard, Charlie, made from the spirit of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. For all his limitations, Charlie is just about the best character in the novel - he has a dry wit, a dapper style, and he's utterly fearless. I didn't expect to find the golems very interesting, but it only took a few pages with Charlie before I was totally sold.

The storyline could be an episode of CSI, with the addition of supernatural beings. The NSA is tracking a serial killer, a human murderer with three victims under his belt. The NSA bigwigs are certain that the guy is crazy, and that's why they need Jace. Vampires and Werewolves are immune to mental illness, and with so few humans around there is little knowledge of such diseases. Her expertise is literally non-existent in this parallel world.

I was really hooked on the plot as Jace pieces together an understanding of the villain's motives and, simultaneously, discovers that she can't trust her own team. The murders are clearly political in nature - a human being outraged at the way his species is treated - and the NSA people don't feel like telling Jace about all the horrors and atrocities fueling the killer's anger. At some point, as the information trickles in, Jace starts to wonder if she's on the right side.

Mixed in with all this good stuff are a few pretty serious flaws. First of all, all the romantic elements here are horribly botched. There isn't one moment of sexual tension that felt real to me. All the men capable of having urges in this book are attracted to Jace - that's annoying. It's especially annoying because these guys give off vibes which seem really low key to me - "That Jace Valcheck, she's spunky and good-looking, wouldn't mind sleeping with her" - but Jace interprets these mild urges as cause for serious drama, which made me think she was a little pathetic.

Which brings me to my biggest problem with the novel: Jace. She is supposed to be a consummate professional but she is not. In the course of this one novel she gets drunk on the job, she sleeps with a colleague, and she goes AWOL repeatedly. In general, if Jace has to choose between calmly taking control of a situation and running off half-cocked, she'll go for the latter. As a character, she felt incoherent to me.

I've been reading urban fantasy for a long time now, and it's harder and harder to hook me on a series. Books that would have put an author on my auto-buy list five years ago don't make the cut anymore. There's just a lot more out there, and fans can afford to have higher standards. This one would have made the cut a couple of years ago. Today? I'm not so sure. ( )