3.5 Stars

THE HEAT SEEKERS

Katherine Ramsland

Pinnacle

ISBN 0-7860-1435-0

2002

This first novel by the foremost Anne Rice scholar and biographer creates a deadly, sensual world of unusual vampires. Jamie's sister Gail, who has renamed herself "Ana," has disappeared after becoming entangled in the Goth lifestyle. Jamie encounters Allan, a reporter who claims to be a friend of Ana. He takes Jamie to a club frequented by real vampires, after which her situation becomes more dangerous hour by hour. The story is told alternately in third person (mostly from Jamie's viewpoint) and first person (by one of the vampires). These vampires live with snakes, see ghosts, secrete a "venin" that functions as a powerful drug, have skin that is a "mass of infrared receptors," and feed on body heat as well as blood. An ancient manuscript, a poison for which Jamie's or Ana's blood may contain the antidote, and possible treachery within the vampires' "kamera" (coven) drive the development of the convoluted plot.

Ramsland's vampires come across as fascinatingly exotic, their alien qualities enhanced by the numerous words she has coined to express their unique experience of the world. Remembering the neologisms and keeping track of the numerous plot twists demand concentration from the reader, but the book is worth the effort. The vampires have an arcane subculture with a hierarchy of power and blood-bound loyalty, reminiscent (not surprisingly) of Anne Rice's undead. I did not find the vampires very appealing as characters; however, people who enjoy Rice's fiction or the "Vampire: The Masquerade" roleplaying game will probably be enthralled by these lethally superior seducers and predators.

Reviewed by Margaret L. Carter