Dying Bites is a book that will keep you guessing from start to
finish. Barant does a great job building an alternative universe -
a what if world where the question is what would the world be like
if humans were in the minority and vamps and weres the majority?
Jace Valchek, is an FBI profiler who specializes in serial killers
and mentally imbalanced criminals. As the book opens, Jace believes
that she is in a tequila-induced dream where her boss from the FBI
is transferring her to a new assignment. Only too late does she
realize she's not dreaming and that she's been moved to a parallel
universe that is almost identical to her own, with one big
difference. This world is inhabited by a mix of vampires,
werewolves, and golems (basically magically animated people-shaped
bags of sand). Humans make up less than one percent of the world's
population and they are slowly on the decline.
The NSA (National Security Association) made up of vamps and weres
need Jace's help to catch a human sociopath that is on a bizarre
killing spree. The head of the NSA, David Cassius, makes a deal
with Jace: bring this human serial killer to justice, and she can
return back to her own world. Given little choice as she's stuck in
this new world until Cassius returns her, Jace accepts the
assignment. What she doesn't count on is the secrecy surrounding
the case she is working on and the NSA's desire to withhold certain
information from her that would put werewolves and vampires in a
different light. She also begins to find herself almost, but not
quite, sympathizing with the killer. He is, afterall, a human. Jace
has to keep an open mind and look at all of the angles of the case
in order to figure out what the killer's next move will be and if
she really wants to stop him.
Barant does an excellent job introducing a whole new world where
vampires make up the majority of the population and humans have to
form terrorist groups to survive. She doesn't try to re-invent the
way we know werewolves and vampires; she gives us a good picture of
how these beings would live in our modern day society. The plot is
well paced and there is lots of good banter between the characters.
The problem I had with this book is the main character. I just
didn't like Jace. She comes across as an alpha female type that
lets her mouth get her into trouble more often than not. She's
abrasive and sarcastic. Usually I like a snarky heroine, but they
usually have something else personality-wise that redeems them and
makes you like them anyway. Not Jace. She's just a b!tch. I never
really could warm up to her.
The other thing that bugged me was the whole premise of yanking
Jace into a paralell universe to help solve a crime. The reason for
needing her help is lame and you can't help but wonder what the
real motive is. Jace begins to wonder the same thing though, so
maybe it's supposed to be part of the whole set up.
Despite a couple of drawbacks, I am intrigued by the whole concept.
The story itself was intriguing and very unpredictable. Several
times I found myself thinking, 'I never saw that coming'. There are
so many twists and turns you will think you are running through a
corn maze. I am curious enough to want to see where this series
goes. I will more than likely pick up the next book in the series
when it comes out.