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DD Barant
I liked Dying Bites. I didn't love it like I loved reading Suzanne McLeod, Devon Monk or Ilona Andrews. There's no denying that DD Barant can tell (write?) a good story. There's plot, twists and turns, suprises, and humor. There's also scenes of horrific sadistic killings, which is probably why I didn't love the book.
The main character, Jace has been brought over from earth to another dimension, another parallel earth. Only this world has a teeny tiny percentage of humans. Everyone else is vampire (pire), thrope (lycanthrope) or lem (golem). There are sorcerers which are humans. Jace is brought over to solve a series of killings by an alledgedly insane human. She is assigned to this worlds version of the FBI, which is her job in her world.
DD Barant has done well with the world building. Almost anything you can imagine here, he has addressed for there. Music, TV shows, courier services, the nazis, all the different wars we had and their counterparts for their world; there is bigotry and superiority expressed by the different races. That would be natural, though not commendable. I found the worldbuilding very imaginative.
Jace didn't seem like a woman though; to me she read like a man, or how I would imagine a man to think (could be totally wrong, though I have three sons and a husband....). But I guess not all women are the same anyway. I certainly don't have a lot of "feminine" traits (hate shopping). I liked the character's toughness, and her extremely smart-assed attitude. I like smart-ass. I especially liked the relationship between Jace and Charlie, the golem assigned to protect her.
The murders she has to solve though are very sadistic, reminiscent of the "Saw"-like movies that have come out. I'm not really into those type of movies, so that's what lowered my enjoyment of this book. The murders were very imaginative, but too sadistic for me, and not a fun sadistic.
If you like torture/horror movies along with your humor and a good mystery you'll like this book. The writing was good, the plot and mystery was excellant, as was the world itself. I also liked that you learned about the world as Jace learned about it. That was great. At this point I'm not sure if I would read a sequel. I kind of want to, because I did enjoy Jace and Charlies jabs at each other, as well as Gretchen and Jace. I'm just not sure if I want to read anymore sadistic murder. There is an excerpt of the second book (Death Blows) at the end of Dying Bites. I like the title puns also, always enjoy those type of titles.
Dying Bites was my 33rd book read for my reading goal
