Karl Vance is a free-lance assassin for the Ricardi crime family in Boston because it meets his two main living requirements: money and blood. Karl is handy with weapons, but his best weapon is himself. He is a vampire, and his bosses don’t know. The tensions between the Ricardi mob and the Lucatti mob are heating up and mafia war is on the horizon. Don Alberto Ricardi brings in his daughter Maria, an accounting wiz, to help strategize and gives her license to use Karl as she sees fit. No one knows that the Lucatti family has a vampire of their own; an old enemy obsessed with torturing and killing Karl. Throw into the mix the Order of Thorn, pledged to the safety of humanity from supernatural beings, and there is just no safe place to be.

Blood Vice rips open all our primal fear of vampires. These are not warm and fuzzy, civilized vampires. There are no societies, clans or organization, only Master and slaves. Humans are food, and there are no rules of conduct, except for the ones that Karl has set for himself; he will kill no innocents and he prays for the souls of his victims outside of a church that would painfully kill him if he were to enter. And the humans in the story are just as much monsters as the vampires.

It was hard to see Karl and Maria as sympathetic heroes, but they are. Both are forced into situations neither chose and both hang on by a bare thread to any sense of compassion and humanity. The characters remain true to themselves, both good and bad. Maria will always be the Mafia Princess with a burning desire to be in charge of the family, and Karl will always kill for blood.

Blood Vice is a raw, gritty and masterful tale of the underbellies of the world, both vampire and human. Revenge, treachery, terror and glimpses of honor, courage and compassion, all wrapped up in a tale so vibrant and dark that the reader feels battered right along with the characters. The imagery and vivid characterizations were so strong that I agonized with Karl while fearing him at the same time; I didn’t like Maria yet rooted for her to succeed in her struggle. This book absolutely blew me away, and I am impatient to read the next saga of The Nightfall Syndicate.

Book Stats:

• e-book, digital format
• Publisher: Samhain Publishing, LTD
• Book Length: Novel
• Language: English
• ISBN: 978-1-60504-388-3

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