Dances with Werewolves by Carole Nelson Douglas
Dances With Werewolves by Carole Nelson Douglas, 2007, Juno Books
This is the 47th in my series of Forgotten Books.
I’m not quite sure what led me to this one other than Carole is a long time friend and the cover is quite catching. Paranormal romance is not my usual genre of choice. But, I do read rather omnivorously and I decided to give this one a chance. After all, it is the first in a series and the fourth title just came out at Christmas.
DANCES WITH WEREWOLVES features TV paranormal reporter Delilah Street who is working for station WTCH in Kansas when she observes an episode of CSI V on TV. There is nothing very unusual about it, except that the corpse on the show is a dead ringer for her. Delilah is an orphan, raised in the orphanages and Catholic schools with no real knowledge of her family. And after the Millennium Revelation that vampires, werewolves, witches and ghosts walked among the regular humans, life was pretty weird. So following the CSI episode, she has a run in with the anchorman and his weather witch girlfriend which results in her home being destroyed so she pulls up stakes and moves to Las Vegas to talk with Hector Nightwine, the elusive producer of the show.
She discovers that the actress who resembled her was named Lilith, a Biblical name just as hers was, but little else about her. Las Vegas is a natural habitat for werewolves and vampires and she quickly learns not to run afoul of them. She meets an FBI agent Ric Montoya who is able to use a dousing rod to find bodies. The two of them find a couple that have been buried for a long time. However, right next to them is a poker chip for a casino which has only been opened a short while.
There are sparks between Delilah and Ric and much of the novel is spent eventually getting them together. Along the way, Delilah acquires Quicksilver, a massive wolfhound devoted to her alone. She runs up against Snow, an albino vampire (maybe) who is really Cocaine the leader of a band called the Seven Deadly Sins and he may be Christophe a secret master of Vegas. There are complications with the law. She is kidnapped by werewolves and forced to join a magic act (because they believe her to be Lilith and want to cash in on the CSI fame).
In the meantime, Delilah is researching the two dead bodies and begins to open wounds related to the Werewolf – Vampire War. Long lived demons have long memories and do not like having their failures revealed.
All in all, it was a fun title that never lost fact of its primary purpose of entertaining. I have the other books in the series (BRIMSTONE KISS, VAMPIRE SUNRISE and SILVER ZOMBIE) and will read them at some future point. Carole is a great and underappreciated writer who did some science fiction and fantasy titles before succumbing to the mystery field where she still produces titles in the Midnight Louie detective series. Check her and her novels out.
Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.
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“I do read rather omnivorously and I decided to give this one a chance.” I like that. This isn’t the type of book I usually read either, and I doubt even with the eye-catching cover, that I’d pick it up in the (real or virtual) bookstore, but it’s an interesting review.
Although I’m vampired out, I’ll give this a look.
I’m vampired out too, George, and zombied out, and werewolved out, and all the rest.
I was just at Malice Domestic 23 and heard Carole Nelson Douglas talk at many of the panels I attended. She told lots of anecdotes – some of them very funny. Plus I chatted briefly with her in the signing room. I never knew that she started in the sf/fantasy genre. Her lengthy bibliography which fills the genre fiction spectrum blew me away. Since she was the Guest of Honor our book bag (the bag with all the freebies and giveaways) was loaded with her books. I have three now. One of them is a Delilah Street book (VAMPIRE SUNRISE). I’ll definitely be reading it.
Something you didn’t mention, Scott. Maybe it deosn’t start until the second book, but these Delilah Street books have drink recipes in the back. I think there is a bar/nightclub featured in the series and the titles are apparently also drinks served in the bar. Interesting gimmick.
JF – I should have mentioned the recipes though they did start with the second book. She created the Albino Zombie for ths book and the recipe is shown in the middle of the novel. And if you run into Carole (like you did) she frequently has bookmarks with the recipes so you can keep your place in case you decide to try the drinks out. And the spectrum she covers is large and she does them so well.