Customer Reviews

Blood Games

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Sixteen years after he became a vampire, Garreth Mikaelian is back. This time he's hunting a killer - who -might- be a vampire - across the western United States. Lee Killough meshes the police procedural elements of this story with the vampire elements, making a seamless and absorbing whole.

All this takes place against a background where the main character has to take some major life decisions. As in the previous books in this series (published together as "Blood Walk") Killough has done a wonderful job in fleshing out this sympathetic and entirely human vampire and his dilemmas. Many of her secondary characters from this series return, and a new and fascinating character is introduced about two thirds of the way through. If the author writes a sequel I hope she appears in it.

I waited nearly ten years for this book. It was worth it.

Garreth Mikaelian is a fascinatingly different vampire, and maybe the most exciting one of all.

He lives on bottled blood, like most of the vampires I like (Forever Knight etc) and write about (Those of My Blood, Dreamspy -- or even my fantasy vampire, Dorian St. James in the anthology Heaven and Hell from Speculation Press.) But what makes him realistic for me and thus different is the way his ex-partner and family accepts what he is.

It's Garreth who has trouble accepting his human friends' acceptance. His ex-partner's wife is especially interesting for her expertise with the I-Ching and Garreth's attitude toward her pronouncements.

Meanwhile Garreth is acquiring a new family - a vampire family.

This novel, Blood Games, takes us through a necessary transition phase in Garreth's existence, and it's a page turner with a complex multi-leveled plot and rich adult themes.

At the start, Garreth is settled into a stable, somewhat fulfilling and almost happy life. Nothing has happened for years now as he works in the Sheriff's dept. in a small town and becomes well known and trusted. Once again, Lee Killough paints us a picture of a normal person who happens to be a vampire. You can easily picture yourself in his position.

But by the nature of his condition, it can't last. And here in this book is the beginning of change.

The plot is all about chasing a serial killer or three who seem perhaps to be vampires (or think they are). You aren't really sure about what Garreth is chasing until the end -- and neither is he.

He shows us once again that despite being a vampire, he's a cop. It's what he's always been - it's what he wants to be.

And he's still able to use his original identity, but in this novel, he's facing the fact that he must soon move on. And that's the real conflict in this novel - the real developmental tension for these characters -- change. The resistance to change, the confrontation with necessity, the anguished acceptance of change, and the whole new situation that results at the end of the novel -- is all about change.

The new situation at the ending puts me in mind of Fred Saberhagen's FRIEND OF THE FAMILY - the vampire that watches over generations of a human family.

I'm hoping that Lee will carry on Garreth's tale and let us meet up with his family's descendents as he watches over them.

But this book leaves us with a twist. If you like vampire novels at all, you must have this book on your special shelf.

Live Long and Prosper,
Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Garreth Mikaelian is the original vampire detective, and he's finally back. This book takes place 15 years after the last book in this series (bloodlinks), and the fact that Garreth doesn't age as 'normal' is now starting to become a talking point among his family and the people he works with.

This is an inevitable situation for any vampire-sytle character, if they survive long enough, but not many books actually chronicle with how it would be delt with, given the links to the human world that any vampire would need to survive.

Garreth is grounded in 'real world' police procedures and its limitations, and in many ways that is what sets this series apart from many other 'cop-vampire' books. There are very definate limits to what you can do as a police detective, and still stay as one later when the adventure is over.

In this book, Garreth gets caught in a car accident in daylight, and his is girlfriend killed, while the people who deliberatly crashed into him drink his blood when he is unconcious, beliving him dead.

Garreth is shattered by this turn of events, but in a whirlwind of anger and fear that new vampires have been created, he sets of on a cross country chase down what turns out to be a serial killer.

In many ways this book is a real turning point. What has gone before can no longer be continued and by the end great changes have occured in all the main characters life. It'll be interesting to see where the next book goes.

This book will not be for you if you like vampire stories to be horror stories or full of romance and sex, because this book is really about how a policeman, who just happens to be a vampire, learns to deal with the world as it comes without bending the rules so much that the story becomes ridiculus.

Lee Killough writes fine police based books and by the end you always have the feeling that in the 'real world' this could just have happened. They are always worth reading more than once.

Lee Killough's BLOOD GAMES grabs you from the first paragraph and never lets go. Killough masterfully intertwines fantasy, science fiction, psychology and solid police procedures in an excellent and excting story of a vampire detective. Garreth Mikaelian balances his detecting with one foot in this world and one in the vampire world. Yet, throughout the book, he he solves crimes with good detection, sometimes making use ot his unique abilities. I highly ecommend this book. Janet B. Fudala, Ph.D. CEO, Educational Solutions

If this is your first encounter with Vampire Cop Garreth Mikaelian, you're in for a terrific read. Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for the ride of your life. Blood Games is fantastic.

I waited 10 years for this book and must admitt that I was
disappointed. It's not as good and the first two. I found that
it dragged and really didn't make me want to finish it.
I do like her newest book Wilding Nights and hope she
will write more in that series.

Vampire cop Garreth Mikaelian spent the last 16 years in Baumen, Kansas, dutifully playing his role as a good cop in the town's tiny police department. He refuses every chance to advance from uniformed patrolman. He successfully pretends sunlight doesn't bother him. As far as the department can tell, Garreth's only distinction is the number of times he and fellow officer Maggie Lebekov break up and get together again and again.

But this stultifying, if comfortable, undead life comes to an abrupt end when Garreth and Maggie give chase to a van carrying a very pale man and two girls wanted in connection with a number of forgeries. Driving like a racing pro from hell, the pale man forces Garreth's car off the road. As Maggie and Garreth hover at the edge of death, the pale man and his companions loot Maggie's purse and gun. They also steal Maggie's and Garreth's blood.

Maggie dies of her injuries. Garreth can't remember if his attackers actually drank his blood.

Are the man and his girls human or vampire? And if they're still human, can Garreth reach them in time to prevent their transformation--or mete out the true death needed to prevent them from bringing others across.

Could the pale man be the legendary albino vampire who served in Caligula's Praetorian Guards or merely a human impostor? And of the two, which will prove more dangerous in the final showdown--man or superman?

That questions lies at the heart of Killough's tale, and she offers no easy answers. Each of her central characters--human and vampire--displays a spark of greatness. The balance seems weighted in the favor of older women, but that may reflect their role as nurturers and advisors to the forty-something Garreth, who searches for understanding with the same tenacity he hunts for clues.

Blood Games offers a solid police procedural that never allows the fantastic elements to detract from its central mysteries. This proves both a great strength and weakness. The need to construct the details of Garreth's everyday life further slows a beginning already weighted with the hasty deaths and departures of several of Garreth's nearest and dearest. But keep reading. The pace picks up nicely once Garreth hits the highway in his Porsche, and the dear departed provide a wonderful spectral chorus to Garreth's journey of self-discovery and renewal.


Reviewed by Barbara Franchi for REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE, July 2001

Garreth Mikaelian, the vampire police detective has finally resurfaces in the third book of the series. First introduced, and vampirized in Blood Hunt, it is now 16 years later. Garreth has stayed in Baumen, Kansas, where he met and killed the woman who made him a vampire. He has a quiet life with his job and lover, fellow police officer, Maggie Lebekov.

Then the two are run off the road by an albino man and two girls, killing Maggie. He dreams they are licking his blood. He begins searching for the killer, who may be a vampire or who may be faking it, but if he has drunk Garreth's blood, he will become a vampire when he dies. Garreth wants to get him, and the girls, before that stage is reached.

In both Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series, and Tanya Huff's Vicky Nelson series, and even in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the old vampire legends are accepted at face value. Killough has turned the vampire legend on its side with this series. In the first two books we learn how Garreth became a vampire and what being a vampire entails. He can go out in the daytime and go into a church but he must drink blood and he prefers the dark. He has retained much of his humanity, but he will live forever and he must learn how to cope with that. I raced through all three books in this series and hope that more will magically appear soon. For someone who dislikes and distrusts fantasy for the most part, that's a very strong statement.


Reviewed by Sue Johnson for [...]

Garreth Mikaelian is an unusual cop. He has been a vampire for the past 15 years. He has also been on the beat in Baumen. He had chosen to work the night shift for the obvious reasons and had passed up the opportunity for promotions to remain on that shift.

His peaceful existence is shattered on night when a carload of joy-riding teens wreaks havoc on the tiny town of Baumen. A beloved police officer is dead and Garreth must find the killers. Not only have they killed the one officer Garreth was in love with, but as a prank or maybe not they have drunk his blood.

Are they vampires or just kids playing at vampires? Either way Garreth must find them and deal with them himself, because if they are killed now they will come back more deadly than ever.

This was my first Lee Killough book but not my last. I have always enjoyed a good vampire story and this one features a vampire that still has human feelings and characteristics. I need to go back and find how Garreth became a vampire and how he dealt with it.


Reviews from Amazon.com as of August 1, 2001

Christine Hawkins from Canberra, Australia [...]
Sixteen years after he became a vampire, Garreth Mikaelian is back. This time he's hunting a killer - who -might- be a vampire - across the western United States. Lee Killough meshes the police procedural elements of this story with the vampire elements, making a seamless and absorbing whole.

All this takes place against a background where the main character has to take some major life decisions. As in the previous books in this series (published together as "Blood Walk") Killough has done a wonderful job in fleshing out this sympathetic and entirely human vampire and his dilemmas. Many of her secondary characters from this series return, and a new and fascinating character is introduced about two thirds of the way through. If the author writes a sequel I hope she appears in it.
I waited nearly ten years for this book. It was worth it.

**************

Kathy Maxwell...Sydney, Australia
Garreth Mikaelian is the original vampire detective, and he's finally back. This book takes place 15 years after the last book in this series (Bloodlinks), and the fact that Garreth doesn't age as 'normal' is now starting to become a talking point among his family and the people he works with.

This is an inevitable situation for any vampire-style character, if they survive long enough, but not many books actually chronicle with how it would be dealt with, given the links to the human world that any vampire would need to survive.

Garreth is grounded in 'real world' police procedures and its limitations, and in many ways that is what sets this series apart from many other 'cop-vampire' books. There are very definite limits to what you can do as a police detective, and still stay as one later when the adventure is over.

In this book, Garreth gets caught in a car accident in daylight, and his girlfriend is killed, while the people who deliberately crashed into him drink his blood when he is unconscious, believing him dead.

Garreth is shattered by this turn of events, but in a whirlwind of anger and fear that new vampires have been created, he sets off on a cross country chase after what turns out to be a serial killer.

In many ways this book is a real turning point. What has gone before can no longer be continued and by the end great changes have occurred in all the main characters life. It'll be interesting to see where the next book goes.

This book will not be for you if you like vampire stories to be horror stories or full of romance and sex, because this book is really about how a policeman, who just happens to be a vampire, learns to deal with the world as it comes without bending the rules so much that the story becomes ridiculous.

Lee Killough writes fine police based books and by the end you always have the feeling that in the 'real world' this could just have happened. They are always worth reading more than once.



Reviewed by Maria Y. Lima of Alexandria, Virginia for COZIES, CAPERS & CRIMES

Cop. Father. Lover. Friend. Four words that can describe most any man also describe handsome police officer, Garreth Mikaelian. Oh, yes, but there's one more word - Vampire. With fifteen years of the night life behind him and an equal number of years as a cop, Mikaelian figures there's not much he hasn't either seen or heard about.

He's getting used to the idea that his family is getting older while he remains the same physical age. He's even getting to like living in Baumen, and has fallen in love with fellow officer and sometime lover, Maggie Lebekov.

Dealing with his vampire nature has become routine. He stays out of the sun as much as possible, gets his blood from the local supply house, and has established a comfortable routine. But, as luck or fate would have it, his life demands more of him than he feels he can give. First a beloved grandmother passes, leaving Garreth feeling alone, then a nightmarishly brutal attack leaves him seemingly near death and leads to the demise of someone he really cares about. A trio of seeming joy riders are the culprits - and two of them seem to be young girls. Is their elusive leader a vicious vampire seeking blood and glory, or just a frightening wanna-be with delusions of fanghood and a taste for brutality and vampire blood?

My first foray into the world of Garreth Mickaelian and author Lee Killough's take on the modern vampire was nothing short of captivating. Killough's characters proclaim their existence with every breath, drawing the reader into her realistic fantasy world as she tells a compelling story. It's easy for a writer to create cardboard vampires, either evil, twisted hellspawn or conversely, angelic do-gooders with funny eating habits. Killough skillfully crosses that divide and creates a likeable, yet humanly (or vampirically?) flawed protagonist that seems right at home in our own "real" world. Some critics have proclaimed that there's nothing new or different about Killough's story, which thus has little worth - but I have to disagree. She's established a world that could be, a set of characters that anyone might find next door, even if some of them happen to be undead. With the rise in popularity of Buffy and other mainstream American vampire tales, Killough continues to add to this tradition with her own version of the myth. Fans of both the mystery and science fiction genres will enjoy this excellent story and Killough's world.