Bloodshot by Cherie PriestMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Jacket Blurb: Raylene Pendle (AKA Cheshire Red), a vampire and world-renowned thief, doesn’t usually hang with her own kind. She’s too busy stealing priceless art and rare jewels. But when the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene finds him impossible to resist—even though Ian doesn’t want precious artifacts. He wants her to retrieve missing government files—documents that deal with the secret biological experiments that left Ian blind. What Raylene doesn’t bargain for is a case that takes her from the wilds of Minneapolis to the mean streets of Atlanta. And with a psychotic, power-hungry scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black popping up at the most inconvenient moments, the case proves to be one hell of a ride.
Read for October 2020 book group. Read as an audio book.
Premise of the book is interesting enough: Raylene is a century old vampire who keeps herself employed by stealing things for other people, or sometimes, herself. Usually very expensive and priceless things. She has been approached by another vampire who wants his records retrieved from when he was held captive under a secret government experiment. When Raylene accepts, this triggers a cascade of events that have her on the run across the States as she works to uncover the truth.
See? Interesting.
The main character? Not so much. She grated on my nerves, switching whiplash like between a strong, independent, kick-ass vampire-ess, to a panicky, indecisive, uncertain vampire in the space of a few breaths or sentences. The use of snark as a self-defense mechanism and humor to offset the indifference didn't quite work. I will add here, my dislike could be a response to the narrator of the book. The performer did a most excellent reading, maybe too well, and that much added vocalized emotion might have contributed to my annoyance.
The sub-characters I quite liked. Ian and Cal were intriguing, I wanted to know more about Antonio, and even Pepper and Domino were interesting.
The antagonists were, well, typical government subversive antagonists right down to wearing black and sneering. Nothing new there.
There was one small plot surprise toward the end of the book that had me nodding in appreciation, but while the book does not end on a cliff hanger, it does firmly set up the next book in the series. I'm really on the fence if I want to read book two. My opinion: recommended with reservations.
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