Book Review - Code Blood

STORYLINE:  A young woman dies in an accident and someone at the scene takes her foot, which has been severed. Colt Lewis, a member of the paramedic team on the scene, becomes obsessed with finding the foot. His search takes him into the world of wannabe vampires and people who deal in body parts. 

PLAYERS: 

Colt Lewis: is a fire paramedic on a mission; he’s determined to right the wrong done to the accident victim. He’s a well developed character who comes to the job based on his history.  He has his own demons, which he tries to outrun, but eventually faces and put to bed. He does exactly what he shouldn’t on the job; he gets involved and makes it his duty to find the person who stole the severed foot.

Markus Draper: Vampire and body part fetishist. A complex, creepy character who not only like body parts, but is also after a research student who has an extremely rare blood type. His fixation on body parts and blood leads him to do unthinkable things that don’t end with the results he set out to achieve.

I LIKED: the fact that Kurt Kamm created believable characters in Code Blood. The two main characters are driven by different things that happened to them early in their lives and it was easy for me to figure out how they evolved into the people I met on the pages. The writer also paid the same level of attention to A Li, the student Markus fixates on.

Code Blood exposed me to another world with strange customs. It was interesting to be inside the head of someone who would stop at nothing to acquire blood. Markus’ plans don’t quite work out the way he expects, but the plot twists will definitely satisfy readers.

From the little I know of what paramedics do, the language seemed to be ‘paramedic speak’, and was such that I understood what was happening. The writer ensured that there were enough accident response scenes in the story to give a true picture of the role of a paramedic.

I COULD HAVE LIVED WITHOUT:  some of Markus’ weirdness, however, I understand that this is part of the character and how he sees himself. ‘Marcus the Great’ is a character I’ll remember for a while, simply for his determination and what some might consider foolhardiness. I thought he could have made better choices, as in ‘just say no’, but I also understand that when people are in over their heads, they simply try and find ways to cope. Some of these ways have unexpected and disastrous results.

OVERALL COMMENTS: Code Blood is way different from the books I’ve been reading lately. It took me into the Goth world, but didn’t overwhelm me with details. I found some of the segments with A Li to be a little slow, but the writer presented the story in such a way that I was soon worried that she would be hurt, since she seemed defenseless. Let’s just say she proved herself not-so-nicely.

For those who like high-stakes, suspense and single-minded characters, Code Blood will make a truly awesome  read.

SOURCE: The Cadence Group