{"id":4596,"date":"2014-05-04T20:32:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T01:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4596"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:10:14","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:10:14","slug":"dead-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4596","title":{"rendered":"Dead Spots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dead Spots<\/a><\/em> (2012) Melissa F. Olson<\/p>\n

\"dead-spots\"<\/a>Scarlett Bernard is a Null. Magic doesn’t work within an extended radius around her, which means she cannot be bitten by vampires or werewolves or the curses of witches.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the Old World has a use for her: clean up.<\/p>\n

When there is a magical “accident,” Scarlett is called to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, she’s called to a mess that is too big for her–or three of her–and the police show up almost at the same time as she did. <\/p>\n

Jesse Cruz is a newly promoted LAPD detective, trying to prove he deserves his promotion. He’s first on the scene of a horrible gruesome murder where he sees a young woman, and a dog that turns into a naked man and then back into a wolf.<\/p>\n

There were many things I enjoyed about this story–I really enjoyed the mystery, and I always find different takes on vampires and werewolves to be fascinating. But I also enjoyed the little glimpses of how dealing with the supernatural makes dealing in the real world even harder.<\/p>\n

We sat at one of the too-tall tables, and Cruz gave the barmaid a big grin, which had her hustling right over. I tried very hard not to roll my eyes, but to her credit, when she got a good look at my face, she did a classic double take, then glared over at Cruz. I opened my mouth to correct her assumption, but what was I going to say? Car accident? Doorknob? Anything I came up with\u2014 short of \u201ca vampire hit me in the face\u201d\u2014 would sound like a lame cover-up . We ordered beer and Diet Coke, and I was pretty sure the barmaid spit in his bottle of Heineken. I chose not to comment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Heh.<\/p>\n

There was the classic paranormal romance cliche of two men being in love with the protagonist, who is the very special only one of her kind. That part–the two guys interested in her affections–irritated me. <\/p>\n

Which is too bad, because I thought many of the elements of the relationship between Scarlett and Eli was very interesting. Scarlett is scarred by her past, and uninterested in a relationship, especially with someone who she believes is using her just for the relief from being a were. I really wish the relationship between Scarlett and Jesse had remained a professional one. I think there was a lot of potential for an interesting relationship, if it hadn’t veered into romantic threesome territory.<\/p>\n

The mystery was interesting, but I’m not sure it was particularly solvable.<\/p>\n

The story had potential, and since I have the second, I’m going to read it. But I really could have done without the love triangle.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by 47North <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dead Spots (2012) Melissa F. Olson Scarlett Bernard is a Null. Magic doesn’t work within an extended radius around her, which means she cannot be bitten by vampires or werewolves or the curses of witches. Therefore, the Old World has a use for her: clean up. When there is a magical “accident,” Scarlett is called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":false,"_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":[2,8,16],"tags":[313],"class_list":["post-4596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-mystery","category-supernatural","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1c8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":500,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/500","url_meta":{"origin":4596,"position":0},"title":"Already Dead","author":"Michelle","date":"January 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Already Dead (2005) Charlie Huston Joe Pitt is a vampire who was a small time punk and thug before he was turned. After he was turned, he spent some time working as an enforce and, not to thrilled with that line of work either, then ended up Rogue, doing his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1713,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1713","url_meta":{"origin":4596,"position":1},"title":"Dead and Gone","author":"Michelle","date":"May 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Dead and Gone (2009) Charlaine Harris When I first discovered the Sookie Stackhouse books the were like a revelation: Romance can be fun? Really? And they were fun! Mysteries, vampires and sex that wasn't completely ridiculous! Then at some point, they started to get ridiculous. It seemed as if every\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\/2010\/05\/Dead-Gone.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":333,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/333","url_meta":{"origin":4596,"position":2},"title":"Touch the Dark","author":"Michelle","date":"December 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Touch the Dark (2006) Karen Chance Cassandra is a clairvoyant who is on the run from her former vampire master. After she receives a death notice on her computer, she flees, taking only her gun from her office, and stopping only to warn her roommate that there is danger coming,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"Touch the Dark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/touch_the_dark.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4200,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4200","url_meta":{"origin":4596,"position":3},"title":"Blood and Bullets","author":"Michelle","date":"November 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood and Bullets (2012) James R. Tuck First off, I actually enjoyed this. I was looking for mind candy, and this succeeded. Second, I laughed when I saw a picture of the author. Deacon Chalk is quite obviously how the author seems himself, right down to the goatee. That's not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blood-Bullets","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Blood-Bullets-185x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3584,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3584","url_meta":{"origin":4596,"position":4},"title":"Teeth: Vampire Tales","author":"Michelle","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Teeth: Vampire Tales (2011) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling This is an Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling anthology, so as always, there are fascinating bits of folklore. 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Luckily, Kitty has friends across the ocean, including Emma, Allete's great(s)-granddaughter, and Tyler and Schumacher representing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Kitty-Steals-the-Show.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\/4596","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}