Book Review: In the Blood by Delia Remington
Most of what you know about Marie Antoinette is wrong. For starters, she was and is a vampire. The French Revolution wasn’t about taxes or food, it was about wiping out the vampires that had taken over the French nobility. The “Marie” that was beheaded was a mind-controlled double. The real Marie Antoinette is living as an antique dealer in Saint Louis, Missouri. She probably would have been okay had she stayed there.
Marie discovers that a particularly important piece of her memorabilia has come up for auction in New York City, and she goes there to bid on it. Having secured her last handkerchief, Marie decides to play it safe and murder a random bystander to switch clothes to confuse anyone following her. This in fact has the opposite effect, revealing that an unknown vampire was in the neighborhood. And there aren’t many unknown vampires.
Meanwhile, back in St. Louis, Marie’s longtime companion Fin starts falling in love with art student and barista Sybill Lysander, who seems to reciprocate. Peckish, Fin drains a homeless person in the park, thinking it will be ages before anyone finds the body. He’s wrong.
This book is the first in the Blood Royal Saga, which is at least a trilogy.
Good: There’s some nice detail about St. Louis.
Less good: I found no one to root for in this book. Marie and Fin (who is secretly someone famous too) try to only drink from people who either want to die or deserve to die, but break that rule whenever it’s convenient. Their enemies (led by a mysterious person from Marie’s past) are even more ruthless and unconcerned with collateral damage.
Sybill hasn’t actually murdered anyone before she inevitably becomes a vampire herself, but seems perfectly okay with the benefits of a life of crime as long as she isn’t having to pull the trigger herself or hang out with those that do. I think she’ll adjust to being a creature of the night just fine.
Much of the vampire rules remains murky, as this is obviously a set-up book, raising lots of questions and putting people in peril to be resolved in future installments.
There’s a heavy romance element which is abruptly derailed by the plot happening.
To be honest, this just wasn’t my cup of tea. It might appeal more to those who loved the World of Darkness role-playing game setting, where vampires and other supernatural critters were secretly behind all interesting human history.
