The Vampire of Venice Beach

By Jennifer Colt.

(This is the third of a series, I haven't seen the earlier ones yet.)

Kerry McAfee is a Southern California PI. She was always the "good girl" in school and in life. Her twin Terry, on the other hand, is now an ex-con after a coke-filled driving bender. When she got out of jail, Kerry hired her, and now they run a double detective agency. Their world of LA is surreal yet fun-- and that's not even factoring in Terry's usual nutty behavior.

In this book, the homecoming queen they went to school with, Darby Applewhite (what a name, eh? You'd think she's a horse), has gone full on Goth, and the twins are hired to act as fake bodyguards during the opening of a new Goth/vampire/creature of the night store. Except for when there turns out to be a dead body in the coffin...one they suspect early on is not Darby's. (Hint: if you faked your own death, don't answer your phone!) The twins do interviews with the thoroughly strange folks in Venice vampire culture, and start re-mixing with the Applewhite parents. The parents are definitely Up To Something Shifty, which probably has something to do with Darby's younger sister Pam. Pam has a child with an abusive ex named Damien and has been on the run for years. One can't help but wonder if Darby's death/disappearance relates to this....

This is a twisty mystery. The LA world the twins inhabit is surreal nuts, but fun. I especially enjoyed the twists of the mystery itself and finding out what was going on. I give especial admiration to one character in particular, but due to spoiling I'll refrain from saying who. I have to give massive props to the author for turning out a good vampire tale without the tale actually being supernatural. There's also one ludicrous plot element that, well... if you buy that... but I felt like the book turned that around nicely, so I had less objections to "Uh, why are you getting upset over something that is probably a scientific impossibility?" in the end.

If there's anything rather weak in here, it's what goes on with Kerry's love interest(s). Now, I haven't read books 1 and 2, so I am probably missing details there. Maybe there was more buildup in past books on this topic? But her main dude occasionally breezes in here and there, suddenly wants some kind of commitment level out of the blue, and it's just rather awkward and weird rather than swoon-worthy. It felt like a token romance put in because all books gotta have a romance these days. Hell, there was barely time to have him show up at all, really. I didn't care.

But overall, it's a fun fluff read with crazy action and a weird world. What's not to love? I can see why they'd compare this series to Stephanie Plum, if you're into that sort of thing. Four stars.