The Vampire of Venice Beach

While not my favorite out in the series, I still laughed out loud and enjoyed this book immensely. However, {{{{BEGIN SPOILER}}}} I'm disappointed that there wasn't much interaction with Boatright and none with FBI agent. {{{{END SPOILER}}}} Overall, a very solid humorous mystery series. Lots of laughs and perfect escapism reading.

Twins Kerry and Terry McAfee are at it again! This time they're working for their friend Darby Applewhie, aka Ephemera, Queen of the Undead, to work crowd control at the Venice Goth Parade. But when Ephemera falls out of the coffin dead instead of popping out very much alive, they set out to determine what happened and how she ended up dead. They find themselves in a dark world with a goth cult led by a thug with a forked tongue and a dentist whose specialty is prosthetic fangs. Will threats scrawled in blood on their Harley stop them? Detective John Boatwright provides his own diversion with his amorous advances. Can they untangle the myriad of suspects to discover the killer's identity without putting themselves in further danger? I love these twins. The situations they find themselves in are so entertaining. Plus their many antics make me laugh out loud. I always have trouble putting down a book in this series. I was worried since this one dealt with vampires whether I would like it. The author has done a great job of bringing us into the dark world without making this cozy dark. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to read the next book in the series. I highly recommend this book and series.

Colt has me hooked on her crazy parade of characters and L.A. locales and her wacky, labyrynthine plots. I got a little lost inside this plot, but it was a fun ride and kept me guessing, as usual. I can't wait for the next installment!

Jennifer Colt's writing is smoother than whipped butter on a hot California afternoon. It's a joy to read and aptly lures the reader into the noticeably odd world of the McAfee twins. Are they expert private detectives or are they simply blessed with more than their fair share of dumb luck spiced with occasional genius? (You be the judge.) What appears, at first bite, to be a simple job of providing protection for a hearse in a "Coming Out of the Coffin Parade," (work to die for, one might say) quickly becomes something else again. Colt is adept at keeping the reader, and the twins, from knowing just exactly what that something else again actually is. People die, or seem to die, or perhaps die and then become undead. In real life, none of this would be funny and anyone caught laughing at it would be rightfully chastised by polite society. But the twins don't live and work in polite society or, more correctly, normal society. So, it's impossible to read "The Vampire of Venice Beach" without laughing, without wondering just what can possibly go wrong next, and who--if anyone--will have any blood still flowing through their veins by the end of the novel. You don't need to be a "social vampire," a goth or a private detective to sink your teeth into this easy reading novel with a well-twisted plot

I'm a huge fan of the McAfee girls, Terry and Kerry, and these books. Jennifer Colt wrote yet another great mystery without losing any of the witty charm that these two girls carry. I really hope for another sequel!