Blood Pact [Mass Market Paperback]

Vicki Nelson, Private Investigator, is having a difficult time dealing with the men in her life. During the day there is Mike Celluci, a Detective-Sergeant with the Metropolitan Toronto Police Department. During the night there is Henry Fitzroy, the vampire who had once been a prince, a duke, an earl, and a Knight of the Garter. Normally Vicki answers her mother's phones calls; even when she dreads to. Then comes the night that Vicki has had more than enough drama for one day. When Marjory calls at the worst time possible, Vicki simply cannot deal with listening to her mother too. So for once, Vicki does not answer the phone. This means the guilt hits Vicki hard the next morning, when she is informed that Marjory has died.

Vicki travels to Kingston without telling Mike or Henry anything. Of course, when the two figure out where Vicki went and why, they follow. To offer comfort, if nothing else. Vicki's guilty conscious keeps her dry-eyed as she moves through the necessary process of dealing with her mother's funeral and estate. When Vicki opens the casket to find Marjory's body missing, Vicki is livid! Vicki shuts everything out of her life except the need to find the person or persons who had taken her mother's body. The next time Vicki sees her mother body, it is standing at a window looking in at Vicki. The body is dead. But part of Marjory is trapped within. Before Vicki can get outside, the body snatchers had already grabbed Marjory and left. Someone is responsible for turning her mother into Frankenstein's monster. More than likely, the culprits are from the university. And Vicki will not stop until she finds out who is responsible and can finally put her mother to rest.

**** FOUR STARS! This episode Vicki has to deal with mad scientists trying to reverse death. The story has the equivalent, or flavor, of the book/movie titled Frankenstein. For all those who have been waiting for Vicki to - finally - be Changed, this is the episode where it happens. (It has been obvious from the first story that it would happen eventually.) I will say nothing else about it. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

One of the most unique things about Tanya Huff's vampire tales is that they are never really vampire tales. Of course, Henry Fitzroy, one of the investigators, is a vampire, but the villains never are. Demons, mummies, and spectacularly deficient humans, but no bad guys with pointy teeth. One has to admire an author who consistently comes up with monsters that make vampires seem tepid.

"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.

BLOOD PACT is the 4th offering from Tanya Huff's Blood (Ties) series. As a fan of the TV show I was thrilled to discover this series of books which now have the added benefit of visual references for our 3 main characters as they continue to battle both the supernatural and each other in their ongoing love triangle.

My favourite character here remains romance writing, bisexual vampire Henry Fitzroy. As the 450 year old illegitimate son of King Henry VIII turned modern day romance writer he's both fascinating and swoon worthy. And with our love triangle finally coming to its shocking conclusion I fell even harder for him. Private Investigator Vicki Nelson is as inflexible and tough as ever and even though she's still managing to sleep with both of them it's a mystery to me why either Henry or blue collar cop Mike Celluci would love her because she's not really a very likeable person.

I was again impressed by Huffs writing as she weaves together multiple POV's and gives us a truly gruesome and horrifying story. This one creeped me out big time. Full of thought provoking moral issues, it's a fantastic mixture of romance, horror, fantasy and suspense. The closing chapters are heart pounding and although many disliked the controversial ending I loved it, finding it to be the perfect and really only logical conclusion to the series.

Vickie's been avoiding her mother's phone calls so when she suddenly dies from a heart attack Vicki is not only grief stricken but wracked with guilt. Vicki travels to Kingston for the funeral and because both Mike and Henry are concerned for her fragile mental state they follow her. However the situation goes from bad to unthinkable when her mother's body goes missing from the funeral home and later turns up outside the living room window, dead yet somehow horribly alive. Knowing that the Ontario police aren't going to invest much time in looking for a body Vicki sets out on her own to find her Frankenstein mother. Refusing to grieve Vicki's nastier than ever, which pairs Henry and Mike on the same team and watching them put their jealousies aside and become friends of a sort added a very sexy dynamic.
The real monsters in this story aren't the zombies at all but the scientists experimenting and reanimating the dead and it's with this discovery that our trio find themselves in dark and dangerous territory. Soon Henry's trapped, starving and at the mercy of the scientists, Vicki's about to lose her mind and zombies and mad, drunken scientists are running around killing each other in an abandoned hospital. Yup this is quite the ride.