Death by Blood
South Beach Crew, #1
by
Kerrie Biehl
Seductive and sexy start to this paranormal thriller series!
Detective Shawna Davies of the South Beach Police Department is working undercover on the night shift as part of an interagency task force to find out who is infiltrating the local scene with a deadly new drug called La Petit Mort, which has killed several of its young users rather than deliver the ecstasy promised by its name. Paired with the devastatingly handsome and unattached Detective Eric Black from Miami, and despite their mutual attraction, she is laser-focused on ridding her community of this new danger. Together, they quickly discover the power behind the pills belongs to an ancient predator, and Shawna finds out there’s a whole other society existing side-by-side with the known human one: a society Eric Black is more familiar with than he is ready to reveal.
Death by Blood is the first book in author Kerrie Biehl’s sexy and seductive South Beach Crew series of paranormal thrillers, and it is a great kickoff. Engaging characters, some human, some not, caught up in a compelling set of storylines, had me glued to this book from start to finish. I was so immersed in their world that I was shocked by how much time had passed by when I finally came up for air.
Shawna Davies is an accomplished and decorated narcotics investigator handpicked by her department chief as their liaison on the interagency task force to stop La Petit Mort. She’s a fully imagined character when the story opens, but with hints throughout that something in her backstory drove her to leave her parents and childhood home in Vermont to start over in Florida. She is immediately affected by her hunky new partner from the task force and struggles to maintain her professional distance, but thankfully, not too long, because Eric Black is hot! The pair’s chemistry is unmistakable and results in some very spicy adult scenes.
Eric Black is a centuries-old vampire and an Enforcer for The Elders, the council of ancients that rules the worldwide community of the undead. He, too, struggles with his unprecedented attraction to Shawna, and when trouble (and later opportunity) arises, he succumbs to all his sensual desires. His disappointment with Armand’s decisions and actions was heartfelt, and his sadness radiated off the page. His sworn duty to deal with Armand is heartbreaking, but Armand effectively destroys their past relationship with his words and deeds, and Eric moves forward with what he has to do without sentimental qualms.
The plot progresses quickly, and intriguing twists are introduced that really shake up Shawna’s life and everything she ever believed about herself and her past. However, her past is a bit murky even before a stunning revelation about her origins. While hailing from Vermont, at one point in the story, she mentions offhandedly that she grew up in Oregon. I don’t know if that was a calculated dissembling on the character’s part for some reason or an uncorrected leftover from a previous iteration of the novel. Similarly, Shawna’s cat Twitch, who is literally left to his own devices in Shawna’s home for days at a time, is renamed Tiger midway in the story. Of course, Twitch may have found another home with people who would feed him, and this is a new cat.
While resolving their official mission, a number of questions are left unanswered, though, and hopefully, these will be addressed in future books. Both Shawna and Eric are blessed with a ride-or-die pal: Detective Jessica Houser for her and shapeshifter José Lyro for him. The synopsis for the next book in the series, Death by Fire, indicates it will feature these two very interesting secondary characters.
I recommend DEATH BY BLOOD to readers of paranormal thrillers, especially those who enjoy vampire stories or a Miami-area setting.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy through RABT Book Tours and PR.