{"id":231,"date":"2006-04-24T21:20:30","date_gmt":"2006-04-25T04:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=231"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:19:04","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:19:04","slug":"blood-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/231","title":{"rendered":"Blood Price"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blood Price<\/a><\/em> (1991) Tanya Huff<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I’m embarrassed to admit how long I’ve had this book without reading it. In fact, it’s been so long that I’m not even certain precisely how long it has been, but I’m thinking I picked it up in ’94 or ’95, along with its two companion volumes. (The price was $3.99, if that tells you anything, although I got it used.) Not that I didn’t try to start this book before. I did. A rather long time ago. However, the first chapter is rather gruesome, and I thought the book was going to be horror, so I put it back for later. It’s just that later took a lot longer to get here than I expected.<\/p>\n

And to be honest, I’d actually forgotten I had this book. For entirely too long now, I’ve been double stacking my books on the book cases, so this book ended up in the behind row. It was only because I was looking for another book yesterday that I stumbled upon Blood Price<\/em>, and realized that they probably weren’t horror like I was thinking they were, and considering how much I like Charlaine Harris and Simon Green, I should go ahead and give these another try.<\/p>\n

So yes, it was gruesome, but not so much so that I couldn’t stand it, and no more than other books I’ve read. <\/p>\n

Vicki Nelson left the police force because a degenerative disease is slowly causing her to lose her sight. However, until that happens, she’s hung out her shingle as a private investigator. But she still gets into fights with Mike Celluci, her ex-coworker and ex-lover, and a case she stumbles upon draws them back together, rather against both their wills.<\/p>\n

This is a quick read, but an enjoyable one. Although I’m used to my supernatural thrillers with private detectives being written as mysteries, this is written more as a thriller–we know long before our heroes who the bad guy is. And to be honest, I think I might have preferred this as a mystery, but it was still good. The best thing being Vicki Nelson. Vicki is flawed, and not just in her failing eyesight. But that makes her other flaws easier to deal with. I’m more willing to put up with a bitchy character when they have a very good reason for being so cranky. <\/p>\n

It also helped explain why someone who was a good cop would take stupid risks. Which she did repeatedly.<\/p>\n

Considering all the interest vampire books have gained in recent years, it was interesting to go back and read this book which had been written when about the only vampire books around were Anne Rice’s. (Well, the only ones that I knew about anyway.) There are a few things that date the book, although not many. (Though the skinny leather tie was definitely one of those things.)<\/p>\n

Another positive for this book is that although it is part of a series, it has a complete story arc, and is written more as a mystery series than a fantasy series. As I’m a big fan of fantasy authors who can actually complete a story in a single book, I was very happy about this.<\/p>\n

About the only serious complaint I have, is a line that stopped me cold.<\/p>\n

“Bribes” the sergeant snorted, the ends of his beautifully curled mustache quivering with the force of his exhalation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How, precisely, do you snort the word bribes? I can’t managed it.<\/p>\n

Despite that flaw, I managed to enjoy the book, and am glad that I stumbled upon it yesterday, and am looking forward to the other two books. <\/p>\n

And if you’re interested in reading these books yourself, with the latest vampire craze, there are new releases out, so you won’t have to resort to used bookstores to find a copy.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blood Price (1991) Tanya Huff I’m embarrassed to admit how long I’ve had this book without reading it. In fact, it’s been so long that I’m not even certain precisely how long it has been, but I’m thinking I picked it up in ’94 or ’95, along with its two companion volumes. (The price was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291,16],"tags":[297,311,313],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-charlaine-harris","tag-tanya-huff","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3J","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":235,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/235","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":0},"title":"Blood Trail","author":"Michelle","date":"April 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood Trail (1992) Tanya Huff Okay, I did have a very strong drink to celebrate the end of the semester, so that may have been part of the reason why I laughed out loud several times last night while reading this book. Or, it could be that the book was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/04\/Blood-Trail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":236,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/236","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":1},"title":"Blood Lines","author":"Michelle","date":"April 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood Lines (1993) Tanya Huff In the third book in the Victory Nelson Private Investigator series, an ancient mummy is released from his bindings and takes up where he left off--gathering power and souls for his God. Several strange deaths draw Mike Celluci, and then Vicki Nelson and Henry Fitzroy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/04\/Blood-Lines.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":377,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/377","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":2},"title":"The Repentant","author":"Michelle","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Repentant (2003) edited by Brian M. Thomsen and Martin H. Greenberg I love short stories, so I tend to pick up anthologies when I come across them--assuming they look even remotely interesting. The Repentant looked particularly interesting, since it had several authors I particularly like: Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Repentant.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":237,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/237","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":3},"title":"Blood Pact","author":"Michelle","date":"April 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood Pact (1993) Tanya Huff Surprisingly, I like Blood Pact a lot more than Blood Lines, the last book, although it was quite different than the previous four. In this book they battle not magic, but science: a group of researchers are reanimating the dead. I say surprisingly because the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/04\/Blood-Pact.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":122,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/122","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":4},"title":"Assassin Fantastic","author":"Michelle","date":"September 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Assassin Fantastic (2001) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Alexander Potter I know that Martin Greenberg puts together good anthologies, however there's something about the \"Fantastic\" that gets tacked onto the end of each anthology theme title that puts me off for some reason. However, I've always been fond of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/09\/Assassin-Fantastic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4193,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4193","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":5},"title":"Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives","author":"Michelle","date":"November 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives (2011) edited by Justin Gustainis As the title says, this is a collection of supernatural mysteries. \"Little Better than a Beast: A Marla Mason Story\" by T. A. Pratt \"Dusted: A Cosa Nostradamus Story\" by Laura Anne Gilman \"The Demon You Know\u2026\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"those-who-hunt-monsters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/those-who-hunt-monsters-194x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}