Bloodhound Files

## Genre Information

Urban Fantasy
Paranormal Noir

Paranormal Investigations
Alternative History

 (Series Content Ratings Click on Explicit Ratings for details.)

## About the Series

**Bloodhound Files series** by Don DeBrandt writing as D.D. Barant.

* **Genres:** Urban Fantasy, Alternative History, Fantasy–Mystery-Noir / Paranormal Investigations
* **Theme:** Portal to an alternate Seattle / America, Paranormal Detective, Phychologist, Vampires, Shifters, Golems, Sorcerers
* **Narrative style**:

## Series Description

In DD Barant's thrilling contemporary fantasy and mystery series, FBI profiler Jace Valchek is pulled into a parallel universe to hunt a human serial killer who preys on vampires and werewolves. She works for the National Security Agency of the Unnatural States of America—and her boss is a vampire. Her job description is the “tracking and apprehension of mentally-fractured killers.” What this really means in Jace’s brave new world—one in which only one percent of the population is human—is that a woman’s work is never done.

## Books in Series

1. Dying Bites (Bloodhound Files Book 1) (2009)
2. Death Blows (Bloodhound Files Book 2) (2010)
3. Killing Rocks (Bloodhound Files Book 3) (2010)
4. Better Off Undead (Bloodhound Files Book 4) (2011)
5. Back from the Undead (Bloodhound Files Book 5) (2012)
6. Undead to the World (Bloodhound Files Book 6) (Nov 2012)

## World Building

SETTING: Seattle, Thropirelem, Thropirelem version of Seattle, Alternate Seattle

**Thropirelem**: an alternative earth: same cities, countries, geography; similar history; similar technology. Here's the big difference: the population is composed primarily of vampires, shape shifters, and golems, with a tiny minority of humans, many of whom have magical talents.
### Supernatual Elements

Vampires (pires), shape shifters (thropes), golems (lems), ghosts, portal, magic users, ancient god, shaman, magical sword, realm of Nightshadow, were-zebras, time travel, Japanese gods, Lovecraft’s gods.

### World:

In this fresh take on the vampire myth, Special Agent Jacinda (Jace) Valchek is a 30-something, non-magical, human psychologist who works as an FBI profiler specializing in the criminally insane, and she's an expert at her job. One night, she is snatched up from her bedroom and pulled through a portal to an alternative earth: same cities, countries, geography; similar history; similar technology. Here's the big difference: the population is composed primarily of vampires, shape shifters, and golems, with a tiny minority of humans, many of whom have magical talents. Here's how Jace describes it: "I call this world Thropirelem, because the word neatly encapsulates the three main types of citizens: werewolves (thropes), vampires (pires), and golems (lems). Human beings make up a meager 1 percent of the worldwide population, less than a million people, and I'm one of them. So far." (Back from the Undead, p. 2)

Mental illness has never been an issue in Thropirelem because none of the supernaturals can be affected by it...but humans can. The supernaturals desperately need Jace's skills to track down Stoker, a psychotic human who is wreaking havoc among the supernaturals in this realm, and Jace's freedom rides on his capture. Jace will be working for the National Security Agency (NSA), which is based in the Thropirelem version of Seattle. Jace's freedom rides on his capture.

Most of the humans in Thropirelem were sacrificed by the pires back in 1945 as a gift to a god who, in return, gave them the ability to procreate. The few surviving humans are treated like most minorities, with disdain and with restrictions on their civil rights. Some of the pires and thropes also treat them as prey, nicknaming them OR, for Original Recipe. Naturally, there is a human resistance movement: the Free Human Resistance (FHA). In this realm, the lems are manufactured to be workers, while the pires and thropes are society's movers and shakers.

The series has two primary villains. First, is the ancient, powerful sorcerer, Ahaseurus (aka Asher), who dragged Jace into this dimension and seems to be obsessed with her. Asher is the only person who can safely return Jace to the mortal world. Unfortunately, he allies himself with the bad guys and soon disappears. The second villain is the tall, dark and dangerous human Jace is supposed to capture: Aristotle Stoker (a descendant of you know who). Stoker is a murderous nut job who hates all thropes and weres. He lives off the grid and knows how to keep himself hidden at all times. In book 2, Stoker challenges Jace to turn her back on her contract with the supernaturals and join the human resistance movement to save her own species, but Jace doesn’t trust him at all. By book 3, we can add Dr. Pete (now known as Tair, his evil alter-ego) to the list of villains after his identity is altered by a **sorcerer's** manipulation of magic.

## Book Descriptions

1. Dying Bites (2009)
Her job description is the “tracking and apprehension of mentally-fractured killers.” What this really means in FBI profiler Jace Valchek’s brave new world—one in which only one percent of the population is human—is that a woman’s work is never done. And real is getting stranger every day… Jace has been ripped from her reality by David Cassius, the vampire head of the NSA. He knows that she’s the best there in the business, and David needs her help in solving a series of gruesome murders of vampires and werewolves. David’s world—one that also includes lycanthropes and golems—is one with little knowledge of mental illness. An insane serial killer is a threat the NSA has no experience with. But Jace does. Stranded in a reality where Bela Lugosi is a bigger box office draw than Bruce Willis and every full moon is Mardi Gras, Jace must now hunt down a fellow human before he brings the entire planet to the brink of madness. Or she may never see her own world again.
2. Death Blows (2010)
FBI profiler Jace Valchek was pulled into this parallel realm to hunt for Aristotle Stoker, a human serial killer who preys on vampires and werewolves. Now she works for the National Security Agency of the Unnatural States of America - and her boss is a vampire. At a bizarre crime scene, Jace finds a bloodsucker murdered by magic, fried to the bone and dressed in the costume of the comic book hero the Flash - a character who isn't supposed to exist here. Comic books have been outlawed for their powers, including crossover spells like the one that transported Jace to this world. Soon, she's following a trail of dead bodies into the sinister underworld of black-market comics - where a deranged madman gives new meaning to the term "super-villain."
3. Killing Rocks (2010)
FBI profiler Jace Valchek’s ticket home from the twisted parallel universe where she’s been called to duty hinges on the capture of serial killer Aristotle Stoker—and an alliance with a sorcerer known as Asher. The problem: Asher has joined forces with some of the most dangerous creatures Jace has ever encountered. The solution: There is none, without Asher’s help… Jace’s goal seems simple enough—to get her man, like always. But just hours after she arrives in Vegas, she’s abducted…and she isn’t even sure who the real enemy is. Now Jace has to wonder if she’s the predator or the prey in a very dangerous game that could change not only her fate, but the world’s…Meanwhile, a serial killer is still on the loose. And time has already run out.
4. Better Off Undead (2011)
Dark magic, unknown enemies, monsters of every stripe—FBI profiler Jace Valchek has seen it all. In this bizarre parallel universe, shape-shifting werewolves and blood-thirsty vampires don't even warrant a raised eyebrow. That is, until Jace has to face what life might look like as one of them … It starts off as just another run-of-the-mill assignment: to track down the rogue don of a mafia werewolf family before he upsets the delicate balance of the underworld. But Jace wasn't counting on being bitten…and soon she's fighting the growing wolf inside her with a startling antidote—vampirism. Stopping a bloody gangland war won't be easy when Jace is feeling some new, and very inhuman, desires … In Better Off Undead, Book 4 in The Bloodhound Files, DD Barant takes Jace farther than ever before ... and the result is "A stellar addition to an already outstanding series" (RT Book Reviews).
5. Back from the Undead (2012)
Another work day, another case for the Bloodhound Files. But this time, Jace is truly stumped: How is she, a mere human, supposed to penetrate the dark heart of a child-trafficking ring of pire orphans—one that turns out to be part of a blood-farm operation, in the crime-ridden border city of Vancouver, British Columbia? Jace is in over her head. But with the help of her former lover, Tanaka—whose family is one of the last samurai clans left in Japan—she stands a chance at seeking justice for the condemned children... Until the Yakuza tries to put an end to Jace's investigation. Jace risks more than death—this time, it's the fate of her very soul that's in danger.
6. Undead to the World (2012)
Jace’s return to Kansas is an instant reminder that there really is no place like home. The tavern is still brimming with losers, practical jokers, and motorcycle chicks. Even the town’s only Goth is still wearing eyeliner. But just as Jace is about to click her heels and hightail out of there, she’s roped into a brand-new case. Somebody is possessed. And the bodies are piling up… They call him the Gallowsman. According to legend, he was sentenced to hang—though his crimes still have not been specified. When he was strung up to die, his spirit stuck around waiting for people to hang themselves…so he could steal their bodies. Now, with the undead rising up and going on a rampage, Jace must put her own neck on the line. Can she get the Gallowsman to give up the ghost?
## References

1. ↑ Goodreads | The Bloodhound Files series
2. ↑ Fang-tastic Fiction: D.D. Barant: THE BLOODHOUND FILES