Review: Touch of Evil

I'm beginning to think that all the free e-book giveaways that Tor books launched are modern boddice-rippers. What's frustrating, in the case of Touch of Evil is that the authors are actually very readable --- the book flows easily, and there's such seamless collaboration between the authors that I can't see two different authors at work.

The story evolves around Katie, who apparently had her fiance stolen by a vampire woman in the past, tangled with the vampire crowd, and got away with their grudging respect. Katie's a modern woman --- headstrong, stubbornly independent, and unable to rely on anyone (least of all a man), she tries to tackle all her problems by herself, headstrong, so when she comes back from a business trip and is attacked by vampires she goes on a rampage.

Love interest is introduced in the form of a man in distress in this case a fireman who's looking for an apartment to rent in the building that Katie owns. After this, there's a series of reveal after reveal, some action sequences, and an ending that's complete with a count-down and kitschy ending. It's practically a made-for-tv movie.

What I do like about the setting is that it's a world where everyone knows about vampires and werewolves and the like --- there's none of the "No, they don't exist" reactions that you see in many other urban fantasy settings --- the authors truly did create an alternative world and made everything stick. Unfortunately, they didn't take it to its logical conclusion --- after all, in a world where the police knew about vampires and were-wolves, they wouldn't be so woefully unequipped to deal with them.

Logic aside, there's plenty of longing and sighs, and stupidity amongst the characters. This is a trashy novel and doesn't pretend to be otherwise, and I did wish more than once that the authors had decided to tell a better story instead --- there's so much talent here going to waste!