Vampire Sunrise: Delilah Street: Paranormal Investigator [Mass Market Paperback]

Carole Nelson Douglas (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 24, 2009 | Series: Delilah Street; Paranormal Investigator

WHEN THE STAKES ARE DEAD -- OR UNDEAD!

Werewolf mobsters and vampires run Vegas, but that's yesterday's news for Delilah Street, paranormal investigator. What's truly fearsome is her bloody discovery of an undead evil rooted in ancient Egypt. Now, with her lover Ric fighting for life after a grim battle, the chips are down.

But Delilah is a born winner who has never let a little danger throw off her game, and she's been learning fast since she came to Sin City. Her affinity for silver is making mirror-walking a real breeze, and being forced to accept the albino rock star sorcerer Snow's Brimstone Kiss has ramped up her powers to a startling new level. With the help of her trusty uber-wolfhound Quicksilver, not to mention the orange demon parking valet Manny, Delilah is determined to solve even more paranormal secrets, and hopefully save the few innocents left in town. But can Delilah win her high-stakes gamble for life and love against ancient gods and lethal supernatural odds?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wonderfully written...a unique take on the paranormal." -- New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong

About the Author

Carole Nelson Douglas, author of more than fifty fantasy and science fiction, mystery, mainstream, and romance novels, was an award-winning reporter and editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. After writing some bestselling high fantasy novels and SF thrillers, she imported fantasy notions into her Midnight Louie mystery series, which features a hard-boiled Las Vegas PI who’s a feline “Sam Spade with hairballs.” Her Irene Adler historical series made Carole the first author to use a woman from the Sherlock Holmes stories as a protagonist in the 1991 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Good Night, Mr. Holmes. She’s won or been short-listed for more than fifty writing awards in nonfiction, sf/fantasy, mystery, and romance genres, including several from the Romance Writers of America and Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine, and the Cat Writers’ Association. In 2008, RT BOOKreviews magazine named Carole a “pioneer of the publishing industry. Carole and husband Sam Douglas, a former art museum exhibitions director and kaleidoscope designer, are kept as pets by five stray cats and a dog in Fort Worth, Texas. She collects vintage clothing, and does a mean Marilyn Monroe impersonation, and, yes, she does dance, but not with werewolves. As far as she knows.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; Original edition (November 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439156778
• ISBN-13: 978-1439156773
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 0.9 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #805,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Award-winning ex-journalist and novelist Carole Nelson Douglas has written sixty novels ranging from historical and contemporary mystery and romance to science fiction thrillers to high and urban fantasy. No wonder her home office is a Twilight Zone landscape of mannequins in vintage dress.

She's a four-time Rita Award finalist and has RT Reviews Magazine lifetime achievement awards in Suspense, Mystery and as a Pioneer of Publishing. Currently, she writes two popular Las Vegas-set series: the Midnight Louie, feline PI, mysteries partially narrated by a "Sam Spade with hairballs" and the Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator, noir urban fantasies of werewolf mobsters and Silver Screen zombies in a paranormal Sin City.

Douglas was the first author of a Sherlockian series with a female protagonist, diva-detective Irene Alder, the only woman to outwit Holmes, debuting with the New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Good Night, Mr. Holmes. Douglas says if she has a literary muse, it's definitely feline: mysterious, wise, playful, and packing sharp shivs in velvet gloves.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Sorry, I am now officially tired of Delilah December 20, 2009

By E. Nolan VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

OK, this is book three in the series, and it has yet to gel into something coherent. I thought the first book was promising, that Delilah was a congenial character to spend time with and her voice was appealing. Sure the plot was meandering and didn't make a lot of sense, but the potential was there. The second book was frankly just more of the same. Delilah went places and the plot meandered about until a totally unconvincing conclusion. Delilah was still fun, but the trappings were not improving with authorial practice.

Finally we have this book, and not only does the plot meander more aimlessly than ever, but Delilah herself is starting to become irritating. Delilah roams around Vegas sort of at random, and does stupid things like going back to the hotel where she was held prisioner more or less of her own free will and getting into trouble again. There are tons of non-sequiters such as Delilah being emotionally and physicaly exhausted and only thinking about getting to sleep but then throwing it all over to spar meaninglessly with Nightwine. The author apparently feels that Delilah works better alone, so despite being passionately in love, the plot keeps her from working with her boyfriend so often that he's something of an afterthought in the book. Even worse is how his mother is litterally flown-in and out in a few pages. Even when Ric & Delilah *do* work together, the result is a spectacularly ill-thought-out two-man-one-dog assult on the villians of the last book. Given that victory then depending on having boatloads of allies, this is just *stupid*! Also rather stupid (and unexplained) is the whole bit about Ric's eye, and how Delilah puts a contact lens into it which he totatlly fails to notice over the course of several days..

Frankly I had to force myself to slog thorough to the end of this one. If I do read the next one, it will be through some lingering and unhealthy need to see how things came out, not through any anticipation of a good read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars So-so. December 31, 2009

By Willowite

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This story is mediocre. Not as good as the first two. The first three chapters are a recap of the first two books, which is okay, but went on far too long. The conclusion of the story was abrute.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent addition to a good series December 1, 2009

By DF VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Delilah Street is a paranormal investigator in Sin City: Las Vegas. Her life is complicated by many circumstances, most particularly that she's ticked off several of the mob bosses in town and the last one's agenda seems mixed at best. Her silver medium abilities include the ability to see ghosts in mirrors and travel via mirror, and her ex-FBI lover, Ric, is able to raise zombies. And then there's the mysterious 'twin' who may be a real sister or some kind of doppleganger...

This story starts with boyfriend Ric still hospitalized from being vein-drained (and possibly killed!) by vampires in the last novel. Delilah spends much of her time in this book thinking about Ric or feeling guilty that she had to give Cocaine/Snow a kiss (the Brimstone Kiss) in order to get his help saving Ric, particularly at the beginning when the mystery is unfolding.

As soon as Ric seems to be on the mend, Delilah's pulled into dealing with both the underground Egyptian vampires who tried to kill Ric as well as some ungodly monster killing the werewolves. Failure equals dead Delilah, so she's instantly juggling far too many issues and is scrambling to keep everybody happy while she tries to figure out what's going on. That's some nice tension, and it only gets worse for Delilah the more things go on. But her new found silver medium abilities come in handy and she manages to extricate herself from danger and get the werewolf Mafia don off her back.

Overall, this is a good read and I enjoyed it very much. I think it suffers a bit from the middle novel syndrome, though, as there's a lot of stuff that is wrappign up loose ends and relationship thoughts that frequently had my eyes glazing over. These do serve to develop the relationship with the out-of-it Ric while he's recovering--sort of keeping him on screen; so I understand why the author chose to put them in the book. I didn't hate them, but they were too much for me. Just a bit too much, though.

What I felt the need for, and frankly think the novel is less for lacking, is a true reappearance of Snow. We see very little of him, and I would have liked more of a role for him in this story's development. In this book, Snow is more like the knitter's yarn that she isn't using at the moment: attached and jumping across the stiches behind the scenes, but essentially doing nothing except being there until needed in some future book.

If you haven't read this series and you like urban fantasy, you will probably like this one. Delilah Street and teh world she lives in are really cool. I am looking forward to the next book in the series and to learning who and what Delilah is.