Blood Red [Mass Market Paperback]

Heather Graham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2007

When a fortune-teller shows bridesmaid Lauren Crow an omen of her gruesome death, she and her friends laugh it off as cheesy theatrics—until women begin disappearing in the night.

Even as the streets become more dangerous, Lauren finds herself lusting after a man who is himself dangerous— and quite possibly crazy. Mark Davidson prowls the city by night armed with crosses and holy water, in search of vampires, whose existence, he insists, is real. He is as irresistibly drawn to Lauren as she is to him, and not only because she's the image of his murdered fiancée. But Mark's frightening obsession with finding his lover's killer merely hides a bitter vendetta that cuts deeper than grief over a lost love.

As Lauren wrestles with desire and disbelief, sinister shadows lengthen over New Orleans, threatening her friends and foretelling a battle that may spell the end of the city's uneasy truce between the living and the undead.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Graham's latest is an entertaining vampire yarn set in post-Katrina New Orleans, where three women—Lauren, Heidi and Deanna—have turned up for a carefree bachelorette weekend. Once there a fortune teller shows Lauren a crystal ball image of a man calling her by name and promising a world of blood and death and darkness. The vision, unseen by her friends, puts Lauren on her guard, convinced that someone is following her. She's doubly right: an evil vampire named Stephen is on her trail, having seen in Lauren the visage of his lost love, while a vampire hunter named Mark Davidson is on Stephen's. Soon, Lauren falls in with Mark, counting on him to protect her from the single-minded bloodsucker; as she learns more about the vampire underworld, however, she finds things aren't all they seem. This quick, dirty read makes great use of its New Orleans backdrop and its allusive story line—patched together skillfully from pieces of Bram Stoker's original and its consequent reinterpretations—though fans already steeped in vamp lit may find its charms don't outweigh its predictability. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Lauren Crow is in New Orleans for a bachelorette weekend, and the bride-to-be wants all her bridesmaids to have their fortunes told. In a crystal ball, Lauren sees a handsome but menacing stranger who says he is coming to get her. This terrifies the fortune-teller, and Mark Davidson, a vampire slayer with ties to the police, is quite taken aback when he sees Lauren for the first time. She could be an identical twin to Katie, his intended, who was murdered at their wedding. It is good vampires versus evil vampires as each day a young woman's headless corpse turns up in the Mississippi River. Once again, prolific and popular Graham provides satisfying romantic suspense and likable characters. Tixier Herald, Diana

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Mira (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778324869
• ISBN-13: 978-0778324867
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #810,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Romance > Authors, A-Z > ( G ) > Graham, Heather

More About the Author

New York Times and USA Today best selling author, Heather Graham was born somewhere in Europe and kidnapped by gypsies when she was a small child. She went on to join the Romanian circus as a trapeze artist and lion tamer. When the circus came to South Florida, she stayed, discovering that she preferred to be a shark and gator trainer.

Not really.

Heather is the child of Scottish and Irish immigrants who met and married in Chicago, and moved to South Florida, where she has spent her life. (She has, at least, been to the Russian circus in Moscow, where she wished she was one of the incredibly talented and coordinated trapeze artists.) She majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write. Her first book was with Dell, and since then, she has written over one hundred and fifty novels and novellas including category, suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult, horror, and Christmas family fare.

She is pleased to have been published in approximately twenty-five languages, and has had over seventy-five million books in print. She has been honored with awards from Walden Books, B. Dalton, Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times, the Lifetime Achievement Award from RWA and more. Heather has also become the proud recipient of the Silver Bullet from Thriller Writers. Heather has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as The Nation, Redbook, Mystery Book Club, People and USA Today and appeared on many newscasts including Today, Entertainment Tonight and local television.

Heather loves travel and anything that has to do with the water, and is a certified scuba diver. She also loves ballroom dancing. Each year she hosts the Vampire Ball and Dinner theater at the RT convention raising money for the Pediatric Aids Society and in 2006 she hosted the first Writers for New Orleans Workshop to benefit the stricken Gulf region. She is also the founder of "The Slush Pile Players", presenting something that's almost like entertainment for various conferences and benefits. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vampire thriller with chills and a touch of humor, July 14, 2007

By 

D. Merrimon Crawford (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood Red (Mass Market Paperback)

Lauren Crow, Deanna Marin and Heidi Weiss head to New Orleans for Heidi's bachelorette party. For fun, the three girls seek out a fortune teller and pressure Lauren to go along. When Lauren looks into the crystal ball and hears the warning, suddenly all the shadows in night-time New Orleans take on a malevolent tone. To make matters worse, a stranger seems to appear wherever she goes. Even when she learns his name, Mark Davidson, can she trust him? She is mysteriously drawn to him despite his strange behavior. Mark Davidson follows women, carrying vampire weapons, claiming to protect them. Does his obsession with Lauren, a look-alike for his murdered fiancee, hide a more dangerous obsession?

Lauren is actually a smart heroine unlike in many thrillers, having common sense, but it is her friends that seem to lead her into trouble. She doesn't want to ruin her friend's bacherlorette party so she goes along with them despite her misgivings and against the advice of the fortune teller. The events surrounding and personalities of Lauren's friends add to the suspense of this novel. Although the back cover blurb intrigued, I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. Don't read it in the dark with a book light unless you want an extra chill. The way Heather Graham writes the images of shadows and darkness mixed with the shadows on the ceiling from my book light in an almost bat-like image over a full moon. Chilling indeed! This book is definitely a suspense/thriller with some romance in addition to the paranormal aspect. The first scene in the prologue is very creepy (lots of blood) but, fortunately for readers a little more faint of heart, the creepiness turns more and more into a suspense-laden read with creepy undertones and some crime violence instead of an all out creepy blood-drenched mayhem.

A couple of aspects of this book make this book a great read. Blood Red is infused with a level of humor, particularly in some of the tools to fight the vampires, that keeps this novel from getting too dark. The thrilling part of this thriller for me is that I always kept wondering who the bad guys really were. I thought I knew and I did at times, but the author always kept me guessing and imagining all sorts of scenarios. Readers with imagination will enjoy the twists and turns.

The book has a youthful tone that made me think of some horror movies. You know how in horror movies the girl always does something stupid that a normal person would never do? In this thriller, Heather Graham writes the heroine quite well. Unlike the stereotypical thriller heroine, readers understand why Lauren left the safety to do things that might endanger her and not just remain a catatonic person, immobile and waiting to be a victim...and I probably would have done what she did as well given her courage.

Warning for readers sensitive to violence: crime violence including decapitated bodies and blood in this thriller.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 stars, June 30, 2007

By 

AK "Bro" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood Red (Mass Market Paperback)

They say everyone has a twin, but being the twin of deceased Katya could prove fatal for Lauren Crow. All over New Orleans, women are vanishing, and according to a handsome, mysterious stranger, it's because of a vampire who is after Lauren because she appears to be identical to another young woman. As it happens, that woman was also this man, Mark Davidson's, fiancee. He wants to keep Lauren safe, but he can only do so if she is willing to accept the unbelievable, not just that there are vampires, but that there are some who are good. Is he crazy, or can she trust him with not only her life, but those of her friends, and even with a city's fate?

**** Ms. Graham's fans will recognize some character names from prior novels and welcome the chance to see how they are doing now. Lauren is a credible heroine who carries this classic plot off well. Fans of vampire romance should not be disappointed. ****

Amanda Killgore

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blood Red is Blood Good Fun, March 19, 2008

By 

Jamieson Villeneuve "Author at Large" (Ottawa Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood Red (Mass Market Paperback)

Lauren Crow is not having a good time.

After accompanying her friends Heidi and Deanna on a trip to New Orleans to celebrate Heidi's upcoming wedding, she receives bad news: her life is in danger.

The giver of this news is Susan, a fortune teller in Jackson Square. She stares into her crystal ball and tells Lauren to leave, to take her friends and go. Something stalks her, something wants her and she is in danger.

As if that weren't bad enough, she is being followed by a man named Mark Davidson. After finding Lauren in a New Orleans bar, he doesn't want to let her out of his sight. She is the spitting image of Katie, his first love, who was killed so many years ago by a murderous vampire.

Mark knows that if he lets Lauren out of his sight for one moment, Stephan will claim Lauren for his just like he did Katie. Lauren, however, is having none of this. She doesn't believe in vampire mumbo jumbo and won't accept the truth.

Until the vampire starts to hunt one of her friends. Suddenly the danger they are all in is very real and Lauren must rely on Mark for help. She must also try to ignore the growing passion that sparks to life between them.

But some things don't always go as planned...

Blood Red manages to breathe new life into the tired genre of vampire fiction and it does it extremely well. Having never read a book by Heather Graham before I wasn't sure what to expect; I didn't know if I was in for a bodice ripper with fangs or a book with fangs with a touch of fire. Thankfully it was the latter.

What makes Blood Red so successful is the characters. Lauren is no cardboard cut out heroine. She is tough and stands well on her own two feet. Mark Davidson, vampire hunter, isn't the rough and ready macho man that so many hero's end up being. In short, they aren't caricatures. They feel like living, breathing people.

Graham also manages to throw a new twist on vampire lore that works beautifully. They're still harmed by holy water but Graham has a few new twists up her sleeve. I love when an author take a paranormal element that's already been done to death and makes it his or her own. Graham excels in the paranormal and it never comes off feeling hokey or fake. You will honestly believe, even if for an instant, that vampires exist.

In short, I loved this book. I was hooked from the first page and couldn't stop reading. It's the perfect cure for a case of the blues or to make your summer night red hot. It has something to please everyone: suspense, romance, thrills, and paranormal elements. Graham manages to be deft at juggling all her balls and never drops a single one.

If you haven't fallen under Graham's spell yet, what are you waiting for? Blood Red is an absolute flat out fantastic book and you'll love every bloody moment of it.