Review: fun, fast, and entertaining
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2012
JR Rain's Spinoza novels are like Detective 'lite' novels.  It's not so much the content which, given Spinoza's tragic past can get pretty heavy, but there aren't a lot of sub plots.  He has his outings with his girlfriend Roxi and meets up with Detective Hammer for doughnuts and talking shop but the basic premise is simple:  Someone hires him to find someone, he works the case, he solves the case.  It's simple and it works.  It's a nice departure from having to keep track of many dangling plot threads.  The Spinoza series does make mention of Jim Knighthorse, Aaron King and Jim Knighthorse which is fun if you're read any of those novels as it drives home the point that this is all one cohesive universe that Rain has set up.Once again a case has come to Spinoza.  A teenage boy hires him to find his lost mother, the kicker being she's been dead for a year and a half.  The body is missing.  The boy claims to the the heir to his mother's great fortune but being that she gave him away for adoption he needs DNA evidence to prove his relation so he can claim it.  The missing body kinda throws a monkey wrench in the plan and that's where Spinoza comes in.Obviously it's a Vampire novel (um, it's in the title after all) but it's the way Rain weaves the case and tells the story that makes it entertaining.  Even though it's obvious that a vampire's involved (once again, it's in the title--no spoilers here!) it's interesting to see how Spinoza works through the case and once again gets involved in a world he had no idea ever existed.This is short and I got it as part of the two volume compendium Spinoza For Hire, but it's worth a read for sure.  It's quick and fun and in typical JR Rain fashion, it's entertaining as always.