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BLOOD MEMORIES
by Barb Hendee
Roc/Penguin, October 2009
252 pages
$7.99
ISBN: 0451463056


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Eleisha Clevon has spent most of her life taking care of William, an old vampire who was turned after dementia had set in. He can't hunt for himself, can't cope on his own, so his son Julian turned Eleisha. She'd been his caretaker in life, now she's his caretaker forever. She and William have lived in Portland for a long time and Eleisha planned on many more years. Unfortunately, her former mentor and friend Edward Claymore took a walk on the wild side, which for him meant a running leap off his porch into the sun. Not a good idea for a vampire.

As a result of Edward's suicide, Eleisha and William have to flee. This is not an easy task; anyone who deals with dementia patients knows what breaking the routine does to that patient. Complicating things is the presence of a guy named Wade. Wade can see inside Eleisha's head. His partner Dominick wants to kill the vampires, and has a pretty good track record. He manages to kill Maggie, another very old vampire who has reluctantly taken William and Eleisha into her own home in Seattle.

All the vampires are connected in some way to Julian. Eleisha is terrified of Julian; he has killed other vampires and will easily kill her now that William is dead. Wade and Eleisha spend much of BLOOD MEMORIES running from Julian.

Hendee has taken a situation familiar to many of us, caregiving for an elder with dementia, and transferred it to the world of vampires. This gives her a chance to explore some of the traditions of the vampire legends and see if they can be made to work in today's world. Apparently they can.

Quite a bit of BLOOD MEMORIES takes place in flashbacks. Eleisha learns about Wade when he lets her into his mind; Wade learns about Eleisha when she does the same for him. When Wade meets Julian, Eleisha manages to convince them both that they need to share memories - a gutsy move on her part. This works well in terms of getting lots of background out where the reader can see it; it does, sometimes, make the story drag a bit. Other than that, BLOOD MEMORIES was good enough for me to track down other books by Hendee.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, December 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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