Customer Reviews

Better Off Undead (The Bloodhound Files, Book 4)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jace Valchek returns, and is back to form! Hopefully, if you're reading Better Off Undead (the fourth installment in the Bloodhound Files series), you're familiar with the story: FBI Profiler Jace Valchek is sucked into a parallel universe where the paranormal is normal. She needs to catch an insane human serial killer to get her ticket home. Here, as a human, she's an endangered species, but Valchek might just be getting her wolf on. Oh, and she needs to catch an insane werewolf mob boss, too.

After a somewhat shaky third installment, Jace is back to kicking butt. She's settled into a life in this world. The Jace/Charlie banter that is the lifeblood of this series is back (it was sorely lacking, for obvious reasons, in Killing Rocks [obvious if you've read it, that is]); Jace is again learning more about Thropirelem, but seeming more at home; Cassius is manouvering. It's GOOD. The best since Dying Bites. In fact, I genuinely think this may be the best in the series so far. Some of my favourite parts of this book were Jace's interactions with her shape-shifting St Bernard, Galahad, and there was another scene involving a very new Lem, Billy Beta, that got me a bit sniffly. The [very obvious] parallels with our own world's civil rights movements work here, and add depth, realism, and *soul* to this series.

Readers will also get some satisfaction as the ever-enigmatic Cassius gets even more backstory (there's a LOT of backstory when you're two thousand years old), and his relationship with Jace develops further. On an aside: Cassius is fascinating, and I would have thought I'd enjoy seeing more of him--which is exactly what we got in Killing Rocks. While Cassius is (very) present in this installment, he's not half as ubiquitous as he was in the previous, and I enjoy his scenes all the more for the waiting.

These books are brilliantly plotted. They have tight episodic storylines, but the overarching story arc throughout the series is also brilliant. They're constantly reminding me of a TV series (Fringe!). Individual episodes, but a much larger story arc. You can tell DD Barant is a TV Writer, and it works. I haven't enjoyed a series so much without reservations in a long time.

*Some Spoilers*

I was excited about the new book and had it on my upcoming books list, but felt it had been so long since the last book that I first reread the prior three books.

1. YAY about Jace's relationship with Cassius! We finally see some major action at the very end! I'll admit that I didn't quite know where the book was heading with the inoculation idea and the initial episode. It made more sense by the end as things started getting tied together. But... I wanted MORE than the one event before Cassius got busy with work. What happens next? Will the relationship continue to evolve?

2. Soooo... is it common knowledge that the video footage made a percentage of pires/thropes nuts? It seemed like NSA top secret level knowledge to me rather than public knowledge. Or maybe it's hard to hide the crazies and easy to figure where it originated from. This tiny detail just bothered me a bit.

3. We see more to Charlie! His opinions and knowledge, more about lem construction and rights. It follows nicely from the last book actually, which I thought seemed oddly different since it didn't move the overarching plot line from the previous two books.

4. Gretchen seemed a bit uneven of a character to me. She's first nice with a great dry humor, she's overprotective of her daughter (especially after the kidnapping of her newborn), and now she's a bit cold/cruel (also related to the overprotectiveness of her daughter)? I'm not sure I like her as much anymore... although undead "life" hasn't been very kind to her recently.

Overall... the crime/detective plot remains a real part of the book which is great! It seemed a bit less tight to me because I can usually pick up on clues and sorta figure out where the author might be headed... and I'm not sure I "got" any clues along the way although it makes sense after I finished the book. It's more fulfilling to anticipate where the plot will go and get the surprise in the climax... I just wasn't entirely sure.

It's a good book and definitely moves some things along... just not the initial plot line that will get the main character home. So I wouldn't really agree that this is the best book yet. I definitely liked the first and second books more for moving the overarching plot... this book moves along the Dr. Pete/Tair plot line, which is mostly okay to me. Aristotle Stoker, where did you go in this book and what are you up to?? :)

I read prodigiously but rarely write reviews. I've just finished the first four books in DD Barant's Bloodhound Series and found them very enjoyable (this after several months reading inexpensive, self-published Kindle fantasies and nearly giving up reading due to poor story-telling). Special Agent Jace Valchek is a resourceful FBI profiler with a hard-boiled, irreverent exterior, working to keep her moral compass aligned properly in an alternate universe where humans are an endangered species. The story-telling is entertaining, the characters engaging, and the questions of right and wrong complex enough to give a bit of depth to the mix. I recommend this series to anyone who also likes Harry Dresden or the Nightside.

First, let me note that this is Book 4 of D.D Barant's Bloodhound Files, after Death Blows, Dying Bites, and Killing Rocks. This book will make a lot more sense after reading the first three.

Better Off Undead manages to do a great job of continuing the arc of the ongoing story line, including Jace's relationships with Cassius and now-transformed-to-Tair Dr. Pete, while being a self-contained story in and of itself. In this installment, Jace hunts down slavers in a mob-driven plot with all the slowly unfolding twists and turns of a police drama. She's bitten by a werewolf at the beginning of the story and her efforts to stay human, while pondering whether she would choose to be vampire or werewolf if forced to change, give greater insight into Jace's motivations and changing character as she adapts to her new life in what she somewhat tongue-in-cheek, calls Thropirelem, after the lycanthropes, vampires and golems who make up the vast majority of the population.

I've thoroughly enjoyed all the books in this series, but this was my favorite because we got to see Jace's development as she realizes she would no longer feel at home if she ever actually makes it home. This adventure leaves her poised for more as she starts to make a path of her own in her new world.

This book, like the others is this series, is utterly superb. Stop everything and read this series - this was such an unexpected gem for me, I am kicking myself for not getting onto the Better off Undead-bandwagon sooner.

DD Barant's latest in the Bloodhound Files was totally amazing! Better off Undead is probably gonna be my fave in the series so far! My mind was a little fuzzy on the details of last time, but I was quickly immersed into the plot and story of this book!

Jace is thrust into yet another case, but this time it doesn't involve Stoker, the serial killer she was asked to bring in. This time Tair, the man who was once Dr. Pete, is on the loose and helping another criminal. It's a little complicated to explain, yet it wasn't hard to grasp while reading. There's a lot of crime in Thropirelem it seems, enough to keep Jace busy.

This time around Jace gets bit by a werewolf. Yup, telling you now that it happens, because it was something that happened fairly early on. So now her mission, besides trying to catch the bad guy, is to figure out what she's going to do. There's no cure, but Cassius knows of a possible experiment that may or may not work to help cure her, except it involves some dicey things!

Don't want to get too much into the storyline on that front, so cutting myself off! But it got pretty exciting in the last three chapters or so. Before that it was sort of exciting, it was entertaining, yet it wasn't til near the end that things became heart-pounding exciting!

It definitely made for an interesting book! Jace is starting to get used to Thropirelem, almost thinking of it as a home away from home. She's making friends and fitting in. I like her character development in this manner, it just seems real.

It was a decent read in the end! Sometimes things got a little complex when it came to some scientific matters, but it didn't totally detract from the story. Just made it harder to comprehend some of aspects to the events. But I got the overall idea out of it!

Overall rating 3.5/5 stars

Definitely can't wait to read the next one, Back from the Undead, that comes out March 27, 2012!

The plot in this latest saga is good enough to keep reading but it just does not live up to the excellence of the previous books. Jace finally names the alternate world Thropirelam, a rather mundane term and seems a little out of character with the wit she usually displays. The action is not as intense and the plot more loose than the previous books and it gets preachy about racial problems and differences. I get the lesson, I just don't need to repeatedly get hit over the head with it. Jace's intense desire to remain human is in conflict with her disdain for the other humans.

I have read the first book in this series. I enjoyed it so much that I ordered the next three books. As they came I read one a day. I didn't get a lot of work done and am sad that I must now wait for book five.

This is a wonderful book as is the series. Schrödinger's cat would find much to like about this alternate world which for all the strange twists, still has plenty of crime to keep this detective busy. Those that like "chicks who kick butt" will enjoy how well the central character holds her own in a world where supernatural strength is the norm.

When i went to read this book i thought it would be like the first two in the series, good but not great. Then once i started reading i knew before i even reached chapter 5 that it would better than many books i've ever read. This book offers new conflict and characters are exposed in a new way. Not to mention the action and detail that had me practically seeing everything in my head. A page turner and exquisite read "Better off Undead" brings the The Bloodhound Files to a whole new playing field.