Renowned supernatural author M.R. Sellars’ novel “Blood Moon” – the ninth book in his “Rowan Gant Investigations” series – might not seem like a great place to start, but don’t fret, these are basically formatted in such a way that it won’t really matter that much. For you newcomers, think one part “Ghost Whisperer” and one part “Murder She Wrote” with far, far less old-lady appeal, and you’ve pretty much got the bare-bones gist of the idea.
Rowan Gant and his wife Felicity are in touch with the other side of life, A.K.A. the dead. And they use these insights to help law enforcement find bad people who do bad things… in rather unusual ways, come to think of it. For example, when he feels sick or has a headache, or even randomly starts bleeding out, well, that’s the dead trying to get his attention. Rowan teases out what happened to the dead, usually the newly (or about-to-be) dead, based on the symptoms they present to him… i.e., how they make him sick. He has a friend on the police force that begrudgingly follows him and uses these clues to solve the crimes.
In the particular case described in “Blood Moon” – Rowan suddenly starts bleeding. A lot. So much blood, in fact, that he has to be hospitalized. But what about the case? That’s the interesting part.
** SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read this book and want to be surprised by the twists and turns, DO NOT read this review. It absolutely contains spoilers. You have been warned. **
See, some know-it-all religious-right freak FBI agent known as ‘Bible Barb’ deigns to work with Gant because her niece appears to be a victim of non-standard humans. You know … vampires. As a hot-head, Ms. FBI nearly blows the case and makes things go messy in the process, all because her relative wasn’t really the same case. Yeah, you heard that. It was similar but not the same. Except it wasn’t. So what was really going on?
In essence, it’s regular people using needles, tubes, and good old-fashioned gravity to make it look like bodies were un-sanguinated by the undead… in dirty, icky locations. The niece, however, turns out to have fallen prey to a particularly nasty car-jacking with benefits. Well, benefits for the perpetrator, at least.
Now from the writer’s perspective – This was one of the best-edited books I’ve read in quite a while, at least in an electronic book of this genre (editor can confirm this with the paperback as well). Except for a few words here and there, it was grammatically very well done. Some of the supposed medical terms, however, were wholly and completely inaccurate, but I suppose that’s forgivable, if only because “damn it Jim, I’m a writer, not a doctor!”
In regards to the storytelling itself, I felt that the story was very well done and had some nice twists and turns along the way. The only real downer was that it read more like a bunch of novella articles rather than a cohesive book. What I mean by that is the details and history were repeated sooo many times that I could practically recite them by the end of the book. Maybe that was the point, but it did feel a little more than unnecessary. Kind of like it was just insulting the intelligence of its readers.
Overall, “Blood Moon” (ISBN #: 978-0979453335) wasn’t exactly perfect, but still a very enjoyable read. I honestly think this book is worth the price ($2.99 eBook/$14.99 paperback) and time (276 pages), and with an entire Rowan Gant series, if you enjoy this one there’s already an entire established world to explore!
THE BOTTOM LINE: A very enjoyable, easy read. Not a bad way to pass a rainy afternoon, or a sleepless insomniac night. Highly recommended for fans of the supernatural, or just a good old-fashioned mystery. I’ll definitely be picking up more of this series! (8.5/10)
-Antigone Klima
Nerd Nation Magazine
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