Blood Walk [Paperback]

Lee Killough (Author), Stephen Pagel (Author), Kevin Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 1997

Before there was Nick Knight there was Garreth Mikaelian! Before there was Forever Night® there was BloodWalk! Garreth Mikaelian, a dedicated police officer, runs into more than he counted on when he investigates a very peculiar murder. This leads him to Lane Barber-Young, beautiful, hypnotic, and a vampire. Now Garreth is a vampire also, but the books on the legends and lore of vampirism don't seem to help. How can he keep his job, his friends, and his humanity while battling another vampire in his new life? How will he keep from being the hunted while hunting Lane Barber?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fine blend of mystery and the supernatural. Who says you can't do anything original with the vampire story?" -- S.F. Chronicle

"BloodWalk's final resolution is a testament to Killough's skill as a writer." -- The Vampire’s Crypt

"Fantasy readers should appreciate Killough's variations on the standard form." -- Locus

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

He dreamed of death, and Undeath. Inspector Garreth Mikaelian stood backed against the wall of an alley in San Francisco's North Beach, pinned by the hypnotic gaze of eyes glowing like rubies, unable to move even enough to ease the pressure where the handcuffs looped over his belt pressed into the small of his back. Red light glinted in the vampire's hair, too...not a beautiful woman, some distant part of him noticed, but she used her long, showgirl legs and mahogany hair to seem like one.

"You're going to like this, inspector." She gave him a sultry smile.

"You'll feel no pain. You won't mind a bit that you're dying."

There was pleasure in the touch of her soft, cool lips, and it persisted even after the kisses moved down his jaw and became bites pinching his skin in hard, avid nips. High-heeled boots made her five-ten tower even higher above his five-eight. Lassitude held him passive while she tipped his head back to reach his throat better

Her mouth stopped over the artery pounding there. "Lovely," she breathed. "Now, don't move." Her tongue slid out to lick his skin. She stretched her jaw. He felt fangs extend, then she bit down.

A spasm of intense pleasure lanced through him. Catching his breath, he threw his head farther back and strained up against her sucking mouth. Presently, though, as cold and weakness spread through him, concern invaded the ecstacy, a belated recognition of something unnatural, wrong. Evil. Fear stirred. He started to twist away sideways, but to his dismay could not move. Her body slammed into his, pinning him helpless against the wall...despite the fact he outweighed her by a good fifty pounds. The fear sharpened.

Use your gun, you dumb flatfoot, a voice in his head snarled. Her grip blocked him from reaching the weapon. He sucked in a breath to yell for help, but her hand clamped over his mouth. In desperation he sank his teeth into it. Her blood scorched his mouth and throat...liquid fire. The vampire sprang away, ripping out his throat in her retreat. He collapsed as though drained of bone as well as blood. She laughed mockingly. "Goodbye, inspector. Rest in peace."

Her footsteps faded away, leaving him face down in his blood. Leaving him to listen in helpless terror to heartbeats and breathing that gradually slowed, stumbled, and stopped.

Copyright © by Lee Killough

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc.; 1 edition (July 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965834506
• ISBN-13: 978-0965834506
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,359,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have been storytelling almost as long as I can remember, starting somewhere around the age of four or five with making up my own bedtime stories. In grade school the stories became episodes of my favorite radio and TV shows, predating the fan-written Star Trek literature by decades. Then, in keeping with wisdom that says the golden age of science fiction is about age eleven, at that age I discovered science fiction and fantasy. That first SF novel hooked me on SF and fantasy. But along with the pleasure of devouring this marvelous literature came fear. I lived in a small town with a small library and I saw I would soon read the section dry. So to keep from running out of science fiction, I began writing my own. And because the mystery section adjoined the SF/Fantasy section, leading me to discover mysteries about the same time as SF, my stories tended to combine SF with mystery. They still do, resulting in supernatural mysteries and urban fantasy...with a noticeable fondness for cops. Vampire cop Garreth Mikaelian hunts killers in Blood Hunt and Bloodlinks (published together by Meisha Merlin as BloodWalk) and in Blood Games. I have future cops Janna Brill and Mama Maxwell in three novels (The Doppelganger Gambit, Dragon's Teeth, and Spider Play)space-going cops in Deadly Silents, werewolf cops in my novel Wilding Nights, and a ghost cop in Killer Karma.

Beginning Blood Games, Wilding Nights, Killer Karma and my African fantasy novel The Leopard's Daughter, my books are now being re-published in e-book editions.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bust me, Garth!, July 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Blood Walk (Paperback)

This is a damn good vampire novel, but it's also a damn good police procedural. My husband's a cop and I'm a reporter, so I know the police beat pretty well. I can tell you Killough did a good job capturing the feeling of a small town police force, as well as the mechanics of cop politics in general.

From the standpoint of a vampire fan, I really enjoyed the portrayal of Garth and his struggles with his changed existance. In fact, I think Killough does the best job with that transformation I've ever read this side of Anne Rice. However, Garth is a much more admirable character than Rice's vampires, as human as he is superhuman.

Overall, finding a good vampire novel can be tricky, but Killough's book is so good I've read it a dozen times. And that says something, since the majority of vampire novels I buy I can't even finish because the writing style or characterization or plotting drives me nuts. But this book worked right down to the ground.

Do yourself a favor and buy it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stay up late to read it!, October 2, 1998

By 

OTcyborg (King of Prussia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood Walk (Paperback)

As a conspicuous consumer of vampire novels, I am often looking for something "new under the moon." Blood Walk filled the bill most satisfyingly. With it's well developed characters and neatly twisting plot, it's a refreshing departure from some of the worn cliches of the genre. I found myself reading hte final chapters slowly, only because I wasn't ready to say good-bye to Garreth Mikalean just yet, who by the end of the book became someone I wanted to give a nice warm bowl of blood to. Get this book and plan to stay up late with Garreth, Lane, Harry and the rest.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent mystery and guide for the novice vampire!, September 23, 1998

By 

A. Frech "What Will I Be Today?" (Atlanta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood Walk (Paperback)

Finally! A down to earth vampire with just as many (if not more) problems than us hapless humans. Garreth is a very believable character as he performs his detective work and sorts through the everyday problems of being a vampire in a human oriented world. Lee has carefully crafted a very enjoyable work that pays attention to the details and life's little ironies. I wish all books were this enjoyable to read; maybe I wouldn't get any sleep when that happens!