Murder in Vein: A Fang-in-Cheek Mystery

This promising first in a new vampire cozy series from Jaffarian (Ghost à la Mode) opens with a bang. One moonlit night, serial killer Bobby Piper has waitress Madison Rose at his mercy in an isolated wooded area of L.A. Then an older man suddenly appears and sinks his fangs into Bobby's neck. The next thing Madison knows, she's at the Topanga Canyon home of her silver-haired savior, Doug Dedham, and his wife, Dodie, a retired nurse who's also a vampire. At the request of LAPD Det. Michael Notchey, who's clued into the covert L.A. vampire scene, Madison agrees to help nail the force behind Bobby's string of blood-draining murders. Most of Bobby's victims bore "bloodlines" marking them as potential vampires. Madison, who doesn't bear the mark, may have been attacked because she was mistaken for someone else. Though Madison is no Sookie Stackhouse, she's a definite keeper. (Sept.)