Blood Pact [Mass Market Paperback]

"Blood Pact" opens with Vicki Nelson's worst nightmare. Angry with both Henry and Mike (the other member of their 'love' triangle) she ignores several phone calls from her mother. Suddenly the worst happens, Vicki receives a call from Queen's University where her mother worked. Mrs. Nelson has collapsed at her office, dead of a heart defect. Vicki leaves Toronto for Kingston, full of bitter self-recrimination and at her wits end. Fortunately, both Henry and Mike realize Vicki's state and follow her to Kingston, both determined to help her, and equally determined not to get along.

For Vicki the real nightmare starts when she discovers that her mother's body has disappeared from the funeral parlor. Not trusting the Kingston police to give this mystery their full attention, Vicki, driven by her guilt, along with Celluci and Fitzroy, begin their investigation. Stymied by a lack of clues and compulsive driven to keep searching, Vicki comes close to a nervous breakdown. Then, one night, she is disturbed by noises at her window. Outside she sees her mother's face, dead, but somehow horribly alive.

Thus begins a mind boggling tale which is more of a medical thriller than an occult mystery story. Driven by greed and growing insanity scientists are experimenting with bacteriological resurrection. Mrs. Nelson is the latest in a series of victims. What follows is a grim hunt for the perpetrators, one that tests every bit of strength that Vicki has. In the meantime one of the creatures discovers a fondness for killing people that disturb its peace of mind.

This story is more serious than previous tales of Vicki Nelson, and raises some interesting moral and ethical issues in the context of dealing with the would be Frankensteins and their modern zombies. The cast is small, but intensely drawn. Henry and Mike gain extra depth as they put aside their differences in an effort to keep Vicki from total self-destruction. The scientific and psychological counterpoint is quite a change of pace from Huff's previous novels in this series. While not the best book of the series to start out with, it is certainly an enjoyable read for a regular fan.

This fifth book begins with Vicki and Mike as a couple. if you have read the series, you know that Vicki and Henry were in love but Vicki was badly hurt and Henry made her into a vampire. There are rules that vampires must follow, and one is that they can't hunt in the same territory. Vicki had one year with Henry while he taught her everything she needed to know to survive as a vampire. She left Henry, and returned to Mike, her first boyfriend.

What makes this fifth book so irritating at times, is Henry and Vicki's new personalities which come out in the fifth book. Before Vicki became a vampire, she was already a little irritating. She was an overbearing loud mouth woman cop, who had temper tamtrums, banged things when she got angry and had yelling matches with her boyfriend Mike to the point they woke the neighbors. This behavior is already a little over the top, now throw in the fact that Vicki is a vampire, and even more aggressive, and she at times can be a downright irritating character. Also my favorite character of all was Henry, a vampire, and romance writer, who with his wealth of years, always seemed calm and in control. Not in this fifth book.

Henry keeps seeing ghosts. The ghosts will ask him a question, and then an innocent person dies. When Henry cannot figure this out on his own, he has to call Vicki to help him. As soon as Vicki arrives, none of the old romance is there, instead, they spend the entire novel snarling at each other like animals (which is so unlike Henry's character in any of the other novels). It's very disappointing. Throw in Mike with his yelling and Italian cop testostrone and the most likeable character in book number 5 is Tony, Henry's roommate.

Basically Henry and Vicki will have to stop fighting long enough to solve the crime. I'm glad there was a fifth book, but I am also glad the series ended here. Otherwise, I could see myself becoming disappointed. Vicki as a vampire is annoying.

Still good series - definitely worth reading.