by Jodie Pierce
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the book.
I’m always up for a good vampire story. You can do a lot with vampires. There seems to be an endless mythology from which you can draw. When done right, there isn’t anything as mysterious, seductive, or scary as monsters that live in the dark and survive on human blood. A personal favorite would have to be Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King. He got the tone just right on that one. It’s a classic now, and rightfully so. Justin Cronin’s The Passage also worked for me in a big way. I’m not a huge fan of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, though; I would argue they get too bogged down with unnecessary period details. Just get to the killing please, Anne. The point is, vampire fiction is everywhere, and everyone has their own tastes. As a reader, you can pick and choose how you like your vampires and find almost endless stories about their escapades.
In Jodie Pierce’s Crime Bites and So Do I, we get a story about a vampire on trial for murder, which boasts a lot of potential. This is a fascinating premise. Would a vampire receive the same rights as a human being? How would the court adapt to a vampire trial? How would a death penalty be staged to truly kill one? Unfortunately, this novel is plagued with grammatical errors and an uneven tone that constantly made it difficult for me to be truly engaged with the story.
THE STORY: (CONTAINS SPOILERS) The plot centers on Alexis Fleece, a Cleveland Detective investigating several vampire-related murders. This was a little confusing for me, mainly due to the abrupt shift in narration from first-person to third-person without any kind of explanation or chapter break. Fleece is eventually partnered with a vampire detective, Skender, and the two work together to bring a female vampire to trial for the murders. Again, the tone was all over the place. Were vampires a known part of society, like in True Blood? Or did they come out of the woodwork just as Fleece discovered them? When the story focuses on the vampire trial the novel seems to gain its footing. I would have enjoyed seeing more of this. Having a vampire on trial for murder should have been Pierce’s focal point. You could do a lot with this, and I think Pierce does her best when using her own ideas. Bringing a monk-designed dunk-tank filled with holy water to use as the death penalty is a great bit; I loved that. The potential is here, and I hope the author takes this book back to the drawing board and sharpens her tools to cater to core of the story. It’s a sculpture; more wood needs to be chipped away to bring out the intended design.
THE STYLE: This is another independent work. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I, too, am an independent novelist. As an independent novelist, you have to let someone proofread your manuscript. I’ve made the same mistakes, thinking I could do it all myself. Let as many people as possible read it before you publish it. Nothing rips me out of a story more than simple spelling and grammatical errors. Most of them in this book could have been corrected using Spellcheck. I’m no Ernest Hemmingway, but I do consider myself an above-average wordsmith. I love when the words come together right, and I get off on it in a major way. It’s a lot like being a chef, I think; you add the right ingredients, at the right time, to create something scrumptious. Pierce has the discipline to craft a novel, which is not something a lot of people can do, but this ultimately reads like a rough draft.
FINAL IMPRESSION: There is an enjoyable story here, but you can’t get off the firing range without someone verifying that your weapon is clear of ammo (to use a bit of a military analogy). You need someone to check that baby, make sure you’re G2G (good to go). As independent writers, we all make these mistakes. Fortunately, they can be corrected. I look forward to seeing what else Jodie Pierce can do…
The Bookie Monster's Rating:
In this police paranormal thriller, people start turning up dead all over town completely drained of blood. Are the murders random or whom/what is the common link? Does a vampire have civil rights in a human court of law? When the lead Detective is placed under surveillance, how close will she get to the new man and how much does she really know about him? How much does she even know about her own life? The two work together to bring down the murderer, uncover her past and maybe even make a future together for themselves. What twists, turns and surprises will they find along their way?
Jodie Pierce is married to her hubby, John who gave her a storybook happily-ever-after. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio but traveled to Brasil when she was 16 years old as an exchange student and she continues to travel the US with her hubby. Jodie started writing as a teenager and even wrote for her schools’ newspaper and yearbook. She has had a fascination with vampires since they were introduced to her as a child so she’s had a long history with them. It wasn't until she started reading the Anne Rice vampire books in college that she was truly inspired to stop writing sappy teen romance stories and focus on the vampires she loved. You will find some of her experiences from Brasil in her stories. Many of her stories have historical or researched facts as she also enjoys research and learning about new places. She has published five short novels (Eternal Press), a short story in "Midnight Thirst 2", an anthology (Melange Books), has five self-published books. She’s published a charity vampire anthology book with various Authors named In Vein, where all the proceeds of the book went to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. She loves helping out other new Authors, runs blog hops and facebook events for them to help market them. She has her own small publishing company named Vampirical Lyrical Publishing where she takes on new Authors and helps them see their creations come to life. She's always busy with the next great vampire story as her mind is non-stop and even plagues her dreams.
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Website: http://www.jodiepierceauthor.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.jodiepierceauthor.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vampiregds