|
Book Cover |
|
|
|
|
|
Excerpt |
|
Bel Air
7:35 P.M.
I could have identified myself, flashing
the badge and all, but my hand was throbbing and I didn't have the
patience to deal with some coked-up queen, even one with good fashion
sense. When he jabbed his fat finger into my chest and tried to push me
out of the way, I grabbed his arm, spun him, and locked it behind his
back, bringing him right up onto the balls of his feet.
"Manners, buddy. Where're your manners?"
Keeping a grip on him wasn't helping the pain in my hand any but made me
feel good nonetheless.
"What the fuck--"
The big bald guy in the black fatigues,
who was straight from central casting, reached behind hi to the small of
his back.
And stopped.
Facing a Glock 17L stops most people.
There are some cute guns on the market, some that look like fashion
accessories, nickel plated, ivory handled, all smooth and rounded. And
then there's the Glock. It's big, black, and chunky and it holds
seventeen rounds of 9mm.
"I'm Detective Peter King, BHPD. Let me
see your hands." He raised his hands very slowly. "Good boy. Now, wanna
tell me who you are?"
That stopped Baldy in his tracks. The one
I was handling stopped struggling but kept shouting. "I'm Thomas DeWitte
of Anticipation Studios and this is none of your goddamn business. Let
go of me! You can't do this to me. I'll have you badge. I'll sue the
department from here to kingdom come!"
"Are you threatening an officer of the
law, Mr. DeWitte? Sounds like bad business practice to me." I twisted
his arm a little higher. He was practically standing on is toes.
Ovsanna moved away from me to face
DeWitte. She had a smile on her face. "You'd better calm down, Thomas. I
don't think Detective King is someone to fuck with."
I had to hand it to her, she was one cool
number. "You know these guys, I take it," I said.
She crossed over to her assistant, who
was still holding the tray in her shaking hands, and took it from her.
"Sit down, Maral," she said, "and pour yourself a glass of cognac.
Everything's under control." Then she turned back to me and the jerk I
still had a grip on. "Thomas is my business partner, the head of
development at Anticipation. That's Neville Travis." She motioned to the
skinny guy with an addict's sniff, standing just inside the doorway. "DeWitte's
boyfriend and former director of Hallowed Night. And the
one with the arms and facial hair is what passes for Thomas's security.
Anthony, right?"
Mr. Beefcake gave a short nod up and
down.
"Okay, here's how we're going to to
this," I said. "I'm going to let go of your arm, Mr. DeWitte, and you're
going to keep your mouth shut until I check Anthony for weapons. If you
say anything, if you move, I'll cuff you." I let him back down to the
ground. "Good. Not a sound. Now you can have a seat if you want."
|
|
|
|
|
Synopsis |
|
In Hollywood, everyone wants to be a star,
even the vampyres. Throughout the decades, some of the biggest stars of
the silver screen have been vampyres. Ovsanna Hovannes Garabedian, the
Charelaine of the Clan Dakhanavar of the First Bloodline, is the scream
queen of Hollywood. Over the past century, she has posed as her
grandmother, her mother, and now as the granddaughter with the name of
Ovsanna Moore. With almost one hundred years in show business, she was
the first vampyre to settle in Hollywood and is the leader of the West
Coast. Her human assistant at Anticipation Studios, a small studio, is
Maral McKenzie. Maral is in love with Ovsanna and will do anything for
her. She is the only human that knows that Ovsanna is a vampyre.
Three brutal murder of actors Ovsanna had
turned into vampyres brings Beverly Hills Police Department Detective
Peter King to Ovsanna. He is the lead detective on the Cinema Slayer
case. Ovsanna's first impression of Detective King is that she does not
like him. But her attitude changes as she gets to know him and soon
realizes that she is highly attracted to him. This is something that
Maral does not like because she wants Ovsanna to herself.
Meanwhile, the head special effects
person of Anticipation Studios, Eva Casale, is found eviscerated by
Detective King at her workplace and he starts to wonder if Ovsanna is
the murderer. Thomas DeWitte works for Ovsanna, although he seems to
think he is the boss, and loves to visit a new S&M club. Upset that
Osanna fired his boyfriend, Neville Travis, as director of her latest
film because he was sniffing cocaine while working, DeWitte visits the
club that night with Travis. Unfortunately, the killer shows up and rips
nine people apart their base hands, including DeWitte, Travis, and
Dewitte's bodyguard, Anthony.
After Detective King visits the grisly
scene of the murders, he heads over to Ovsanna's house to talk with her,
but she and Maral are gone. He tracks them down and finds out that they
have headed off to Palm Springs. Ovsanna had returned home earlier that
day and found most of the Vampyres of Hollywood in her house. This group
of elder vampyres is comprised of
Orson
Wells,
Olive Thomas,
Mary
Pickford,
Douglas
Fairbanks,
Charles
Brabin and his wife
Theda Bara,
James
Whale,
Peter Lorre,
Pola Negri,
and
Rudolph Valentino. The only two missing are
Tod
Browning and
Charlie
Chaplin. Fearing for their lives, they give Ovsanna two days to find
the murderer or they will kill off her clan and send her into exile.
Needing some guidance from the oldest vampyre in the world, Lilith, the
Night Hag, Ovsanna heads off to Palm Springs to seek some answers as to
who is after her and her clan. Little does she know that the greatest
danger of all awaits her there.
Vampyres of Hollywood is a
fictional book about vampyres living in Hollywood and the detective
searching for a vampyre hunter. The book is written by Adrienne Barbeau
and Michael Scott.
|
|
|
|
|
Review |
|
From Conan Tigard . . .
It has been many years since
I read a Paranormal Fiction book. Why? I'm not sure. I used to get a few
of them for review, but they stopped coming. Today, vampire stories are
all the rage since the whole
Twilight phenomenon
started. Both my wife and daughter love that series. But those books are
what I call light vampire fiction. You know what I am talking about . .
. good vampires that young teenage girls all swoon for. Hunky werewolf
guys who girls want to have protect them. I'm of the other mind. You see, I
have watched all seven years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I think
vampires are for being killed. Generally, they are evil, undead
creatures who feast on the innocent victims. This is what a vampire is,
right? Wrong, at least according to Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott,
the creators of the novel Vampyres of Hollywood.
What we know about vampires was created by real vampyres to keep humans
in the dark as to their true nature.
Right from the first two
chapters I knew that I was hooked on this book. I instantly liked the
two main characters, one a female 450 year old vampyre and one a male
detective in his mid-thirties. Both characters breath life into the
pages as they try to figure out who is killing vampyres and humans
around Ovsanna Moore. The first half of the book moves
along at a good pace and the authors do a nice job of keeping the
murderer a mystery. The pace of the book really picks up in the last
hundred pages and I found that I couldn't put it down. I just had to
know how it ended, and I was not disappointed. What an ending! It blew
me away!
The killings in the book are
gruesome, but tastefully written. I was shocked by the violence of the
killings, but then I had to remember that we were dealing with vampyres
and the like. Still, to be torn apart limb from limb with someone's bare
hands . . . it just makes me shutter to think about it. Reading a book like this makes me
hope that more Paranormal Fiction will be heading my way for review in
the near future. I had forgotten how good this genre can be, and I feel
that this book is one of the best that I have read.
One of my favorite things in
this book was the group of elder vampyres that make up the Vampyres of
Hollywood. I grew up watching old black and white movies and have fond
memories of actors and actresses that starred in them that are now long
gone. I thought it was great that the book have wonderful actors like
Orson Wells, Douglas Fairbanks, Peter Lorre and Charlie Chaplin . . .
just to name a few. I was disappointed that Vincent Price,
Béla Lugosi, or Boris Karloff weren't part
of the group. Maybe they would have been too obvious. Leo G. Carroll,
who played Cosmo Topper, would have been a nice addition. If I had my
druthers, Jack Benny would be a member too. I thought that addition of
these classic actors made the book something really special.
I also enjoyed the switching
of the point of view for each chapter. One chapter would be from
Ovsanna's point of view and then the next would be from the detective
Peter King's point of view. At the beginning of each chapter is an image
of female lips with pointed fangs or a gun to designate whose point of
view it would
be from. I thought this was a nice touch.
Overall,
Vampyres of Hollywood
is an excellent read that will leave you with shivers running up and
down your spine. Some of the images created in my mind while reading this
book will stay with me for a long, long time. I cannot wait to read the
next book in this series entitled Love Bites by Adrienne Barbeau. I hope it is just as wonderful as this one.
I rated this book a 9 out of
10. From Nikki Tigard
. . .
As my husband mentioned in his review, both our daughter
and I really enjoy the “light” vampire fiction, such as the
Twilight
series. But I have been a lover of vampire fiction for many years, way
back to the Anne Rice Vampire Lestat series. I also love the Undead
series by MaryJanice Davidson and the Sookie Stackhouse series by
Charlaine Harris.
I
found the Vampyres of Hollywood to be very entertaining. I thought it
was a very nice combination of genres – yes, it is a “vampire” novel,
but it also felt like a murder-mystery story, as well as had overtones
of the old 1940’s noir fiction hard-boiled detective style. It felt
sort of like LA Confidential meets Interview with a Vampire.
I
always want to “like” the main characters in any fiction that I read –
and I really did enjoy both the protagonists of this book. Ovsanna
is
the beautiful, mysterious Hollywood glamour woman that all women
sometimes wish they could be. And Detective Peter King is the
handsome, kind, strong police presence that every man probably aspires
to be, and every woman would like to have take care of her (at least
sometimes!).
I
agree with my husband that the violence was a bit shocking and maybe a
bit more detailed than I would prefer to read. But I feel like it gave
a sense of “reality” to a story that is obviously not possible – but it
made it feel like it could be real. This is definitely NOT your
daughter’s light, romantic, fanciful vampire fiction – it’s gritty,
sexy, and real. Or at least as real as a book about vampires can be
. . .
I
agree that it was a great story that kept the reader guessing and
wanting more. I too am looking forward to reading the next book in the
series.
I
would rate this book an 8½ out of 10. |
|
|
