Title: Red Blues
Author: Michael Skeet
In: Evolve (Nancy Kilpatrick)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Vampires
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Edge
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: You wait.

A jazz musician and a vampire have decided who they want… but will he get her with his musical ways?

The beginning paragraphs of this story are very well written. They are slightly vague, and make you think of a vampire sinking his or her teeth into a woman’s neck. They give this slightly titillating feeling to the words and a very sensual ideal to a hunger that is not your own. And then Skeet turns the tables and you find out that the narrator is discussing jazz and an instrument.

Although I loved the opening of this story, the rest was a little too typical vampirish for me… male vampire lures female victim in. Takes a while. Which builds suspense. Then he triumphs and the cycle is set to begin again. It’s well written and it’s fun. But it just doesn’t quite have that same sense of intrigue that less predictable vampire stories can hold…

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Image source: Goodreads