Trail of Blood

By: Steve Wands, Keith Latch

Narrated by: Matthew E. Berry

Occult investigator Sam Logan receives a cryptic call about a man’s missing son that leads him and his partner, Carter Mason - a disabled veteran - into a small town infested with vampires. With each hour they spend in town after dark they discover just how deep the infestation runs and just how unlikely father and son will be reunited.

Trail of Blood is an exciting, blood-soaked, pause-resister for fans of The Lost Boys and Hellblazer.

©2018 Keith Latch, Steve Wands (P)2019 Keith Latch, Steve Wands

3.5* - good set up for sequels

No regrets listening to this audiobook. Note the length (5.5 hours) -- it's long enough to start getting to know some of the characters and build some texture into the story, but it's not long enough to complete the story arc or give us much of a backstory. As other reviewers have mentioned, the authors clearly set us up for additional stories by leaving multiple strings untied, but not in a disappointing way. The ending reminded me of a season finale of a television series in that respect. All of the characters were well written and believable and, as the description noted, the setting is reminiscent of 'The Lost Boys'. So, the main reason why I gave the story four stars instead of five was because it is clearly set up to be a series but the book cover doesn't mention that.

I give 3.5 stars for the narration. I was ambivalent about the narrator at the start of the book because his character voices didn't usually match what I envisioned for the characters. For example, as the story opens, one of the characters is a drunk who is slurring his words - except the narrator doesn't slur his words. He changed the voice for that character's dialogue, but didn't make him slur. It was a weird start to the narration. His regular speaking voice (other than character dialogue) was fine, although I did increase the playback speed to 1.5-1.75x to better suit my preference. (I'm thankful for the ability to increase the playback speed - the pace of narration definitely impacts my overall satisfaction of an audiobook!).

I'd be interested in reading/listening to more about these characters; they're a likable bunch with good chemistry...

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Vampire Mystery

A vampire hunter must save a boy from becoming the undead. What his investigation unravels may be more than what be bargained for.

Filled with action and suspense, the story is fast paced and hectic. It has an interesting view on vampires and a definite adult theme. The story is well written and intriguing.

Very good narration by Matt as usual, he provides different character voices well and speaks clearly and performs entertainingly. He is one of my favourite narrators for sure!!

If you like an actiony, interesting and supernatural mystery, this is for you. You wont regret it!

Note: This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this objective review voluntarily.

A lot of fun

An entry into the PI urban fantasy landscape that brings a lot of fun to the genre. Sam Logan gets called to investigate a missing person which leads to a vampire infestation of a town that is quite startling to the characters. We have an established character who knows the goings on of this particular world and we get thrown into the mix with him right away. It is a fast-paced urban fantasy investigation book that doesn't skimp on the action. It is like a mix of Dresden, 30 days of night and some others in the genre and made for an entertaining listen.

Matthew Berry does a fantastic job narrating the book and thought he made everyone a fleshed out and distinct character. The quality of the production was solid and I enjoyed his pacing and delivery. Look forward to hearing more from Matthew Berry in the future.

An entertaining book with good narration that is a solid bet for fans of the genre.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Solid Bloodsucking Fun

Definitely an interesting and entertaining story, this sets a bunch of people in varying levels of 'broken' trying to make it through their lives against the backdrop of a town with near-Salem's Lot levels of vampire infestation. It strikes an solid balance between vampire related terror situations and the melodrama of just being people in a heightened time. And it has a few pretty good moments of excitement in it's short run-time heading towards a breakneck frenetic ending.

Narration was solid and able to emphasize the emotions of the characters involved as they alternating fighting for their lives and fighting for their dignity.

I received the code for this audiobook at my request and am voluntarily leaving this honest review. Recommended!

Hunting for vampires!

Set in New York, it has a very noir private eye detective feel for it. Sam & Carter need a break or their PI business is going to going under. Good for them that a distressed father calls them hoping they can help find his son, who he is sure has recently turned vampire.

I agree with Carter – there’s nothing more annoying than teen vamps. And unfortunately, the town has a new crop of them. Our main teen starts off a bit sympathetic. He recently lost his mom and his dad has been steadily increasing his drinking. So his home life isn’t too good. Luckily, he has a supportive group of friends…. friends who have found some vamps to turn them into vamps. Later on, this kid turns into a whiny vamp.

Mofan is in charge of the local werewolf (or lycos) pack. Sam has previous dealings with him & he knows his involvement means nothing good. He was my favorite bad guy in this story, being dangerous and business oriented.

I did find some of the slang a little dated. But that mostly went hand-in-hand with the very limited female characters. There were few and far between and were sex objects. The guys also had back hand compliments or gender-weighted insults. All of that was a bit of turn off for me.

Over all, the story had enough action to keep the plot moving forward. It was a little predictable but it was also a bit fun. 3.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Matthew Berry did a decent job with the story. He had a great voice for Mofan the werewolf. I also liked his various whiny teen vamp voices. He played the distressed father well, carrying those emotions from the page to the narration. He did butcher this one accent…. I’m not sure what he was going for. Australian? Italian? The pacing was a little slow but I took care of that by upping my play speed. There were no tech issues with this recording. 3.5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Matt Berry. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.