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Blood Groove
Alex Bledsoe
Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki
Blackstone Audio, 8.5 hours

Blood Groove
Alex Bledsoe
Alex Bledsoe grew up in west Tennessee an hour north of Graceland. He's been a reporter, editor, photographer and door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. He now lives between two big lakes in Wisconsin.

Alex Bledsoe Website
ISFDB Bibliography
SF Site Review: The Sword-Edged Blonde

Past Feature Reviews
A review by Jennifer McCann

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If you're looking for a vampire romance like Twilight, this is not the story for you. No, this is a dark, wet, sticky, ugly, gritty visit to the anti-Twilight. Beginning many years earlier, at the staking of the vampire, Baron Rudolfo Zginski, this is a tale of Old World vampiric culture clashing with the "tuned in, turned on, dropped out" culture of the 70s. Picture Roller Boogie meets Bram Stoker.

After "waking" in a modern morgue, Zginski begins his education in the "New World" of 70s Memphis, Tennessee. He's looking for more of his kind and discovers that things have definitely changed since his last memories of Wales in 1915.

Zginski finally tracks down a gang of undead street kids surviving on the edge of society. They are lead by the ethereal, but badly in need of hygiene lessons, Fauvette. Complications arise when Toddy, a runaway-turned-vampire, is found "permanently" dead from an overdose of a new vampire street drug. This drug does not allow the body to disintegrate, leaving behind inexplicable evidence of vampirism.

Danielle Roseberry, the assistant head coroner of the Shelby County morgue, is the unwitting examiner of this missing boy who has not aged a day since his decades-old disappearance. Discovering a strange compound in Toddy's system, Danielle decides to test out her undercover sleuthing skills to discover this new drug. Her efforts bring her face-to-face with Zginski, Fauvette and their merry band -- with horrific consequences.

Alex Bledsoe brings his love of Memphis, Tennessee to this different vision of modern horror. Bledsoe grew up in west Tennessee and his other works include more than fifty short stories, as well as his debut novel, The Sword-Edged Blonde.

With the haunting, bone-deep reverberating voice of Stefan Rudnicki, Blood Groove is a fabulous example of why he has received the Audie Award for solo narration in both 2005 and 2007. He's also earned recognition as Audiofile Magazine's "Best Voice of the Year" for 2008.

With more jive talking than reruns of Good Times and a number of "N" words dropped with wild abandon, the racially sensitive should possibly pass on this little treat if they are easily offended. Cute and cuddly vampires these are not; Zginski is a bad man with capital letters and the rest are no angels either. There are some rather vulgar and questionably necessary scenes that lend themselves to the oppressively dark edge that you will not find in most popular vampire tales. This is defiantly not a bedtime story for the kiddies. Blood Groove is a guilty pleasure, like rubbernecking at a terrible car wreck which "sinks its teeth in" and doesn't let go.

Copyright © 2009 Jennifer McCann

A belly dancing, dyslexic wife and mother who in her spare time works as a library clerk. A full and rich life is lead through the books she listens to and/or reads. Dyslexics Untie!


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