Customer Reviews

Blood Debt (Victory Nelson)

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

 

 

"Blood Debt" by Tanya Huff is the fifth and final instalment in her fabulous "Blood" series. Though "Blood Debt" is my least favourite of the five books, due largely to the drastic change in the relationship between Henry and Vicki, I still loved it, and will greatly miss Vicki, Henry, and Mike now that the series has come to an end. Filled with vivid and fascinating characters, a top-notch mystery, romance, and tons of danger and suspense, "Blood Debt" will appeal to a wide range of readers.

The book revolves around three main characters, Vicki Nelson, a Private Investigator and ex-cop, her lover, homicide detective Mike Celluci, and her ex-lover Henry Fitzroy, 450-year-old vampire, romance writer, and bastard son of Henry VIII. Henry has been living in Vancouver for a year now, while Vicki and Mike have remained in Toronto. Vicki and Henry have not seen each other at all during that year, but when a handless ghost begins haunting Henry, demanding vengeance against those who murdered him, Henry knows he needs Vicki's help to solve the mystery. Especially when the ghost begins playing a deadly game. Each night when Henry awakes he may ask the ghost one question. If the answers is yes, the ghost will leave, but if the answer is no, an innocent victim will die. At his wits' end, Henry breaks the rule he has lived by for nearly five centuries and asks Vicki to come to Vancouver.

When Vicki arrives with Mike, she and Henry have a hard time just being in the same room together, but as time passes, a strange thing happens. The more time they spend together, the easier it becomes for Henry and Vicki to get along, though their relationship is rather violent. So Vicki, Henry, and Mike work together to discover who killed Henry's ghost and why, and end up right in the middle of a perilous and volatile situation. Huff provides her readers with an intriguing and exciting mystery to solve, set amidst the ever-changing and always interesting love triangle of Vicki, Henry, and Mike.

I can't reveal too much of this book because it would ruin the ending of the fourth in this series, "Blood Pact", for those who have not yet read it. "Blood Debt" is a wonderful read that mixes horror, mystery, and fantasy seamlessly, while exploring the fascinating new dynamics of the relationship between Vicki and the two men in her life. I wished for a happier ending for Henry and Vicki (the couple I was rooting for through all five books), but Huff at least leaves her readers with the impression that things will work themselves out in the years to come. Tanya Huff is a very talented writer with a vibrant imagination and I cannot recommend this series enough. "Blood Debt" is a satisfying finale for this series and is a guaranteed page-turner. So buy it today and enjoy!

Excellent Series - This is the fifth novel in Tanya Huff's vampire series. Although this book is my least favorite, it is still an excellent series overall. This is the final chapter involving Vicki, an ex-cop, Mike, a detective who is Vicki's lover, and Henry, a vampire, romance writer who is Vicki's ex-love. (If you have not read the entire series, you must read it, you will not be disappointed. The series order: Blood Price, Blood Trail, Blood Lines, Blood Pact and Blood Debt).

This fifth book begins with Vicki and Mike as a couple. if you have read the series, you know that Vicki and Henry were in love but Vicki was badly hurt and Henry made her into a vampire. There are rules that vampires must follow, and one is that they can't hunt in the same territory. Vicki had one year with Henry while he taught her everything she needed to know to survive as a vampire. She left Henry, and returned to Mike, her first boyfriend.

What makes this fifth book so irritating at times, is Henry and Vicki's new personalities which come out in the fifth book. Before Vicki became a vampire, she was already a little irritating. She was an overbearing loud mouth woman cop, who had temper tamtrums, banged things when she got angry and had yelling matches with her boyfriend Mike to the point they woke the neighbors. This behavior is already a little over the top, now throw in the fact that Vicki is a vampire, and even more aggressive, and she at times can be a downright irritating character. Also my favorite character of all was Henry, a vampire, and romance writer, who with his wealth of years, always seemed calm and in control. Not in this fifth book.

Henry keeps seeing ghosts. The ghosts will ask him a question, and then an innocent person dies. When Henry cannot figure this out on his own, he has to call Vicki to help him. As soon as Vicki arrives, none of the old romance is there, instead, they spend the entire novel snarling at each other like animals (which is so unlike Henry's character in any of the other novels). It's very disappointing. Throw in Mike with his yelling and Italian cop testostrone and the most likeable character in book number 5 is Tony, Henry's roommate.

Basically Henry and Vicki will have to stop fighting long enough to solve the crime. I'm glad there was a fifth book, but I am also glad the series ended here. Otherwise, I could see myself becoming disappointed. Vicki as a vampire is annoying.

Still good series - definitely worth reading.

Tanya Huff has managed to create vampires with real feelings, real relationships, real passions. She writes with zest. Her stories hold the interest of her readers. Her characters have feelings. Blood Debt is the fifth book in a series featuring a strange love triangle composed of the vampire son of King Henry VIII, a vampire female detective from Toronto and a human Toronto police officer. In Blood Debt, ghosts seek vengeance, and our three protagonists set out to find the murderer responsible for the ghosts. Ms Huff writes with more than a touch of humor. The police officer, in the midst of an escape attempt gone awry, asks himself: What was that plan again? Let him beat you sensless and then escape in the confusion?....Oh, good plan. As with most well-written series, its most satisfying if the reader starts with the first book in the series (Blood Price) and continues through the series chronologically.

Blood Debt (1997) is the fifth Fantasy novel in the Blood series, following Blood Pact. In the previous volume, the old and deserted building burned, destroying all the evidence. Henry changed Vicki to save her life. Then they moved to Vancouver, leaving Celluci behind.

In this novel, Victoria Nelson is a former Toronto homicide detective who had resigned for medical reasons. Then she became a private detective. Now she is a vampire who only works at night.

Henry Fitzroy is a vampire. Henry had been Vicki's partner in some cases. Now he lives in Vancouver with Tony.

Mike Celluci had been Vicki's partner in the Criminal Investigation Division. After Vicki left with Henry, Mike was useless to the CID. His boss put him on administrative leave for a month.

Tony Foster was a street kid. He has seen everything and done almost as much. Now he is living in Vancouver with Henry.

Patricia Chou is a local TV celebrity in Vancouver. She is trying to make a name for herself as an investigative reporter.

Ronald Swanson is a real estate tycoon in Vancouver. After his wife died while waiting for a kidney transplant, Swanson started the British Columbia Transplant Society.

In this story, fourteen months after the change, Vicki returns to Toronto and resumes her life as a PI. Yet the change has corrected her medical condition, so she is no longer night blind or near-sighted. She also has vampire strength and speed.

Mike is glad to have her to himself, but she frightens him sometimes. At least she has been well-trained by Henry. Yet -- as Henry has told Mike -- Vicki is just a child by vampire standards.

Then Henry wakes up one evening and finds a ghost facing him at the foot of the bed. When Henry asks a question, the ghost just fades away. The next evening, the same thing happens.

On the third evening, Henry asks who cut off his hands and the ghost screams with a multitude of others in the background before fading away. Afterward, an ambulance takes away Henry's elderly neighbor.

The next time the ghost screams, a baby in the building dies. Henry has a problem on his hands. Then Tony suggests that they call Vicki.

Henry firmly believes that two vampires cannot share territory, but he is willing to try coexisting with Vicki. Vicki suggests that he ask the ghost questions to which he already knows the answer. Then Vicki and Mike prepare for a trip to the west coast.

After reaching the coast, Vicki and Mike enter Henry's condominium. At first, the two vampires are tense, but cooperating. Then he provokes Vicki into attacking him and defeats her.

Henry takes off to a cabin borrowed from a friend and leaves Vicki in his condo. The next morning, Henry wakes up to face the ghost at the foot of his borrowed bed. He calls Vicki to say that he is returning to the city.

Eventually Henry and Vicki manage to live in the same building and even on the same floor, but in separate apartments. Mike gets a crash course in mediating between vampires. Tony decides to continue living with some friends.

Mike discovers that a body without hands had been found in the harbor. Henry goes to check out the body and finds that it matches his ghost. Then Mike sees a TV interview of Swanson by Chou which raised the issue of organ-leggers, since a kidney had been removed.

Vicki's has a hunch that their ghost was the victim of organ-leggers. Mike tentatively agrees, but they tend to believe that organized crime is behind the murder. Mike gets a list of crime bosses within the Vancouver area from his partner in Toronto.

This tale takes Vicki and Henry deep into organized crime in Vancouver. Then Mike investigates a street clinic. Later Tony recognizes another ghost that appears one evening.

Vicki and her friends solve the mystery, but the ghosts do not leave. This is the final novel within this series, but the Smoke series continues the story of Henry and Tony in Vancouver. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Huff fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of street kids, those preying on them, and vampire investigators. If anyone has not previously read this series, the initial volume is Blood Price.

-Arthur W. Jordin

When a person reads this book they will most likely admire Victory Nelson for her courage, laugh at the street-wise Tony, love the boy-scout Celluci, and feel for the tormented Fitzroy. A nice ending to the series, it holds insights to how people deal with unexpected mixed blessings. Since written by a human, there are slight flaws, but none that take away from the violent, romantic, thoughtful story that the writer weaves around you.

Blood Debt is the latest in Tanya Huff's series of books featuring Henry Fitzroy, a Tudor-age vampire who writes Elizabethan Romances for a living, Victory Nelson, a former Toronto Policewoman turned Private Eye, and Mike Cellucci, a Toronto Police Detective. As in the earlier books in the series, the mystery around which the plot revolves is engaging, and the dialog is witty and full of genre-related in-jokes. I would have given the book a 9 or 10, except for the fact that the first two books in the series are clearly superior. Hence, for relativity's sake, Blood Debt gets an 8

I have read all the books in the Blood series and have enjoyed them all. I loved Vicki, Henry and Mike as characters and I think the storylines were interesting and well written. This final book in the series did a good job tying up loose ends and giving us some kind of closure for the characters. I think Ms. Huff has a great future as a writer and I look forward to more of her work.

Human Detective Sergeant Mike Celluci of the Toronto Police Department is elated that Henry Fitzroy is out of his vampiric lover's life. Henry was forced to turn Vicki into a creature of the night in order to save her life. In doing this he gave up all claim to her because (as everyone knows) it is a basic law of vampiric physiology that two vampires can never live in the same territory. However, all that changes when Henry awakens to see a spirit haunt him. Unless he discovers who killed the spirit and avenge the creature's death, everyone around Henry could face mortal danger. ....Henry knows that he lacks the skills needed to track down a killer. He turns to Vicki, who still operates as a private detective, for help. Vicki agrees to take on the case. As the trio work together to hunt down a murderer, an unusual occurrence happens. The more time that Vicki and Henry spend together, the less incidents of territorial ownership occurs (the lesser known corollary to Vampiric Physiology I). This enables them to forge a new relationship that excludes Celluci without undermining his relationship with the vampire that he loves. ....In this final installment of Tanya Huff's vampire series, the author brilliantly sews up all the loose ends from the previous four novels. The greatness of Ms. Huff shines through as she facilitates the feeling that all three lead characters will live happily ever after. BLOOD DEBT is part romance, part mystery, and totally entertaining as it expands the boundaries and raises the standard of the supernatural romance. The entire series is a must read for fans of otherworldly romance. ....Harriet Klausner -

xcellant book. Nicely ties up a number of the loose ends from the previous "Blood" books, yet leaves just enough of an opening that she could bring it up again. That being said, I hope she doesn't. I like Vicki Nelson and the relationships that are built in this series. However, with the constant taste of violence in their relationships towards each other (the violence, as well as the relationship), I'm not sure that bringing them together (closely) would be a good idea in the long run...something akin to playing with nitro glycerin, just to see what would happen. Huff's a good writer. And, long run, should she write another book in this series, I'll likely get it. But I'll have bloody high expectations of her. And with good reason...she rarely lets me down.

Tanya Huff has a talent for writing fun, imaginative novels that capture the interest -- without demanding too much from the reader. While they are on the surface fluff -- there is a depth and a thought beneath the surface that catchs the attention. They are easy entertainment, and are the type of book I take on an airplane to distract me.

Tanya Huff is an excellent author and I enjoy all of her works.