Title: Code Name: Mockingbird
Author: Kristen Painter
Pages: 97
Bess Walker-James has been forced to retire from vampire hunting. She doesn’t know what to do with her life now and is struggling to cope. When she finds her neighbor’s cat and realizes he is a vampire, she finds herself offering to keep him safe from his enemies.
“He cooked and cleaned, he sang to his cat, and he kissed like nobody’s business. Why did she feel like she was in trouble?”
This was a really great story, especially considering its only 97 pages long. Bess is a tough woman who has spent 40 years hunting vampires. She is 59 years old and doesn’t like that she was forced into retirement. Bess was a great heroine. I was instantly sucked into her story and her intense attraction to her vampire neighbor Callum. Callum was a fun character. He was completely different from any vampire Bess had dealt with and it really made her fall for him faster. Also, I loved that Callum was a cat person who actively sang and talked to his cat.
The enemy in this one was someone close to Callum. Even though this is a short book, the mystery of who was attacking him still felt completely fleshed out and well paced. This was a very unique world with vampires, demons, and shifters and I kind of hope Painter writes more books in this world now.
Overall, while this is a short story, it was a really good one and I highly recommend it if you like paranormal mysteries with older characters.
Red-Haired Ash Reads 