Moon Dance (Vampire for Hire) by JR Rain - review

Moon Dance
from Omnibus "Samantha Moon"
Vampire for Hire #1
JR Rain

**** (4 out of 6)

Cover (omnibus cover) - very cool cover - what's better than freefalling off a tall building?  not landing after free falling.

Completely on impulse, I buy this huge ppb book.  When I actually get it home, I realized it's actually four novels and two shorts all in one hugely fat ppb.  Lots of words for a trade ppb price. :)  works for me.


So -  we have a mommy.  A former Fed Officer (HUD).  A current P.I.  Currently a vampire.  Hmmmm. Interesting concept, which turned out to be a fairly interesting book.  In Moon Dance, Samantha is hired to find out who shot a defense lawyer FIVE times in the head/face area.  Oddly, this guy survived - he's the one who's hiring Samantha Moon.

Also - Ms Moon is having some marital difficulties, seems her husband has been getting colder and colder to her - ironic, since she's the one with freezing skin, being a vampire and all.

I liked most of the book.  There was some snappy dialogue, some heartracing moments and a decent plot.  The narration flowed and the character kept me interested for most of the novel.  However, there were a couple things that didn't work for me.

One was the end, where Samantha solves the mystery - and in explaining her thought process or clues, it occurred to me that these clues were all "off-screen".  They weren't mentioned at all until the end.  Which was kind of weird for me. Not a big deal, but still a little weird.  It's like you write a book, and then just so your character doesn't seem clueless or like things came to a head by coincidence, you suddenly have her telling all these clues she noticed that were never mentioned at all earlier in the story.

The other part was that after being a vampire for SIX YEARS, she's either only just - or who know, maybe continuing - to question her humanity.  Is she human?  Is she a good person?  Does the god or higher power even care about her anymore? etc.  The whole time I'm reading these angsty questions of hers, I'm thinking - 'LADY- you've been a vampire for SIX YEARS.  Seems like you should have at least a good start on working these things out.'  After six years of not attacking people, killing for blood she still is wondering if she's good?  she can't just FEEL like she's a good person?  Of course, her marriage is deteriorating, and some shitty things have happened to her but still; she's hasn't gone off the deep end, she hasn't attacked people for food, she's been working and taking care of her family for six years - six years is a long time to not come to terms on whether you're a decent person or not.

I hope that this "am I or am I not a good human" isn't a recurring angst for the rest of the five stories in this omnibus, because I don't think I would enjoy too much of it. :)