This is a new Urban Fantasy series for me, a Fantasy subgenre that I’ve really come to dig lately.
But since this is a new series (more on that in a wee bit), we have a few questions what need answers.
Is it good?
What makes this series distinct?
Does this look infected?
All these questions and more will be answered today in The Nerd Blitz Book Review!
This is your super bitey ***SPOILER ALERT***, so grab some garlic, in all of it’s forms, and prepare yourself.
Come on in and sit down, gang, let me tell you a little story about how I found this book.
Years ago, when I was still hunting and gathering all of the Dan Shamble books I would sign up for any and all giveaways that would get me closer to my goal.
In doing so, while I never won any of these giveaways, I was introduced to a shit ton of new authors, as well as being auto signed up for their readers lists.
Most of them I unsubbed from because their stuff just didn’t reach out and grab me, but a couple authors had works that really stuck out.
One of them was a dude what had a series called The Grave Report.
I didn’t know much about it, but it sounded interesting.
That author, R.R. Virdi, has since popped in the main stream sci-fi/fantasy (is that an oxymoron?) realm in a big bad way, and I also joined his discord where I found out I missed the chance to get this very book for FREE*! (*click *HERE* to sign up and get a free copy of it for yourself.)
The story goes like this: paranormal Investigator Vincent Graves wakes up in the body of a fella that was being held hostage by some vampires, just as a full blown vamp war is set to break out in Washington D.C.
With a tattoo on his arm that let’s him know he only has seventeen hours left to solve this case before his soul jumps to a new body/case, Graves finds himself in the middle of the conflict all while trying to find out why a seemingly random hotel employee was killed and how that plays into the whole affair.
I’ve been having a bit of trouble getting motivated to read lately, so it took me quite a while to make my way through this book.
But because of that I had a lot of time to kick it around in my head and figure out what I dug the most about it.
For me this is a pretty healthy blending of The Dresden Files and Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series: it’s a semi-serious detective making his way through a hidden sub-culture, but with real monsters instead of magic.
He adds a badass, and clever, new element to the mix with the time lock tattoo.
My only complaint on that front is that I really wish he would have checked in on that a few more times just to really drive the time crunch home a little more and give a better sense of the passage of time, though it does work perfectly fine as is.
There are 3 other books in this series (this story takes place between books 2 and 3), so I’m not sure if he uses that particular story device more or less, but I really do hope it’s more.
When I finished this story I was left with an intense sense of curiosity about what other monster types Virdi has used in this series.
You can tell this is a dude who has a deep love and appreciation for legends, lore, and mythology, and after reading how he digs in on vamps, I wanna see what he does with other monsters in that same vein.
Overall, I dig this story.
It has a fresh spin on a field that has gotten increasingly crowded and sometimes samey over the years.
Virdi’s prose is fairly easy to read and moves well, and I really like the new shit he brings to the table.
I highly recommend you all sign up and get yourselves a copy of this and see if it sparks your interests like it did mine.
Now I gotta get the other three!
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