Blood Game (Eve Duncan Series #8) by Iris Johansen

From the Publisher

First comes darkness, then comes fear
Eve Duncan is back! Blockbuster New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen’s latest thriller brings Eve closer to discovering her daughter’s killer…and into a web of danger from which she may not be able to escape…

Eve Duncan returns in a thriller that pits her against the most evil mind she has ever encountered: a ruthless killer who taunts her with his every move…and who has a special affinity for blood. When a Georgia senator’s daughter is found murdered, and her body drained of blood, Eve Duncan is drawn into the web of Kevin Jelak—a serial murderer who is on Eve’s short list of killers who might know something about her missing daughter Bonnie. When a goblet of blood is found in Eve’s refrigerator, she knows the taunting is over…and the games have begun. As Eve and Jelak engage in a dance of death, Eve must call upon those she loves and trusts the most…even if it means bringing them into the game as well.

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Johansen's latest Eve Duncan forensics thriller features an all-too-mortal vampire. Fresh off a multiple child homicide case (Quicksand), Eve discovers a blood-stained goblet in her refrigerator. The goblet closely resembles one found with the bloodless body of Nancy Jo Norris, a U.S. senator's 19-year-old daughter, the victim of a wannabe Dracula who ultimately thirsts for Eve. In a paranormal twist, Joe Quinn, Eve's FBI love interest, appears to have contracted psychic powers from Megan Blair, introduced in Pandora's Daughter, and can now see dead people—Nancy Jo and Eve's daughter, Bonnie, to be exact. The ghosts guide the search for the serial sucker, complete with corny gothic monologues. Johansen risks alienating some readers as the series slips deeper into the supernatural, but diehards will be pleased Eve at last finds some peace in her ever-growing bond with Joe. 500,000 first printing.(Oct.)

Kirkus Reviews

Johansen (Deadlock, 2009, etc.) stirs psychics, an apprentice vampire and some unsettled ghosts into a bubbling pot of balderdash. Near the end of forensic sculptor Eve Duncan's latest case, she turns to Hamburger Helper to make dinner. It's one of the few descriptive details here, and an apt one for a tale concocted from fragments, cliches, clipped sentences and stilted dialogue. Back in Atlanta (which for all the sense of place Johansen provides might as well be the lost continent of Atlantis), Eve is contacted by a nearly hysterical Megan Blair, who fears that when she clutched Eve during a recent investigation, she may have transmitted psychic powers. Yes, Megan did. Eve's daughter Bonnie, missing for nine years, now appears to her periodically for a cloying moment or two. And Eve's partner, Joe Quinn, has apparently also caught the ESP bug: He begins to see Nancy Jo Norris, a senator's daughter whose nude body has been discovered, her throat slit. However skeptical of the supernatural, stalwart Joe, a former FBI agent, knows a potentially good source when he sees one, so he begrudgingly teams with Nancy Jo to find her murderer. The culprit is Kevin Jelak, who aspires to full-fledged vampire status. To achieve that, he must find and ingest high-quality, high-protein blood, and he thinks Eve and her adopted daughter Jane offer just that. As a calling card, Kevin leaves a goblet filled with blood he sucked from Nancy Jo in Eve's refrigerator. In the meantime, he takes several other female victims, their blood at least good enough to keep him going. Devoted to her mother, Jane offers to serve as bait to draw Jelak into the open. Eve will have none of it. She will place herself on thealtar of possible sacrifice. Some suspense arises as we wait to see how much more preposterous the plot will become. Not even Hamburger Helper could rescue this overdone hash. First printing of 500,000

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