Death by Blood
South Beach Crew, Book One
by
Kerrie Biehl
Paranormal Romance
Publisher: SZ Publications
Publication Date: January 26, 2023
Page count: 639 pages
SYNOPSIS:
Shawna Davies, a relentless South Beach narcotics detective, is hell-bent on taking down a sinister drug lord infiltrating the club scene with a lethal designer drug, La Petit Mort. Tormented by an insatiable longing for something more in her existence, she grapples with the maddening absence of a vital piece of her soul. Unsure of how to escape the void in her life, a flicker of hope emerges with his arrival.
Eric Black, a formidable vampire enforcer serving the council of elder vampires who govern the paranormal realm, is assigned to assist Shawna in her treacherous quest. However, Eric faces his own agonizing demons and dreads the prospect of a partner in his shadowy world. As fate intertwines Eric and Shawna's destinies, he must confront the possibility of entrusting her with his darkest secrets while attempting to resist an undeniable, fiery attraction. Unbeknownst to him, Shawna harbors concealed mysteries of her own.
Bound together under dire circumstances, an intense passion ignites between them. But as their entwined worlds unravel further, Eric's cryptic past threatens to obliterate any chance of love. Can they overcome the dangers lurking behind hidden truths, or will their buried secrets ultimately consume them both?
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OFFICIAL BOOK TRAILER:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kerrie Biehl also writes under the pen name, Serena Zane. As paranormal romance author she loves to write sassy heroines and smoking hot heroes. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and furbabies, Bounce & Strider. In addition to writing, Kerrie sings in a band called Twisted Knickers. She loves crime dramas, her husband Gary, and spends far too much time watching shows like NCIS or Chuck.
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REVIEW:
4 stars!
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.
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