Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Dead of Night by Charlaine Harris and Amanda Stevens



Published: September 24th, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Mira
Pages: 464
Copy, My own
Summary: Goodreads
 
From bestselling author Charlaine Harris and rising star Amanda Stevens come two otherworldly tales sure to haunt readers well after the last page is turned.

Dancers in the Dark

#1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris

Layla Rue Le May is no ordinary dancer—her partner, Sean McClendon, is a three-hundred-year-old redheaded vampire. When Layla Rue acquires a stalker, she's forced to face the music…and wonder if this will finally be her last dance.

The Devil's Footprints

Award-winning author Amanda Stevens

Years after her sister's unsolved murder, Sarah DeLaune is haunted by the mysteries of her past when two mutilated bodies are found near Sarah's New Orleans home, the crime scene desecrated by cloven footprints. Sarah has always believed that her sister was killed by a man named Ashe Cain. But no one else has ever seen Ashe. Until now.
 
 
 As I am sure many of you are aware, it is Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series that is the basis for the TV series True Blood.  Well the short story in this book, Dancers in the Dark is set in that same universe.  We meet a different set of vampires of various types and temperaments, but none that blew my socks off. It was an ok story that I quite enjoyed reading, but it didn't have quite the oomph of her Sookie books..

The second story here is The Devil's Footprints, which is a full length novel on its own.  I'd really love to tell you about it, but I think that almost anything I say would be a spoiler, and it deserves to be read own its own.  Let's just say - it's a creepy mystery that steers you to lots of erroneous conclusions and I was quite surprised at the end of it.

My big question here is 'why were these two stories put in the same book?'  I suspect it was the hope that Charlaine Harris's name at the top of the book would help sell the Amanda Stevens book.  I hope it worked, because The Devil's Footprints was worth reading.  Great for mystery and supernatural fans, though it might surprise you too.

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