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MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.25/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The path to Heaven runs through miles of icy Hell…
James Crowley has ridden the road to Crescent City before, but never with companions like these. Never with a woman whose very presence jeopardizes everything he’s fought for over the past two decades.
The swamps are a brutal, nasty place filled with creatures most people think only exist in nightmares and fever dreams. When Crowley, along with Rosa, Bram Stoker, Harker, and Irish stumble upon such a creature, and one of their party finds themselves mortally wounded, they must find help in the most unlikely of places.
But that wasn’t James Crowley’s mission. As a Black Badge, a Hand of God, he’s been tasked with hunting down the worst Hell has to offer, and at Shargrafein’s beckoning, he must suss out the Betrayer — a mysterious being about whom no information is given.
What he finds is something he never could have guessed. The city is overrun with vampires, werewolves, and worse, including an old acquaintance with nothing good in mind.
Meanwhile, Rosa has continued her pursuit to reconnect with her dead husband, Willy Massey. With the help of a Voodoo Queen, she must do the unthinkable. Only Crowley stands between her and a choice that would forever scar her soul. But will he be able to escape the clutches of Hell in order to keep her from destroying everything and everyone in her path?
MY REVIEW
I compared this series to RIPD 2, Jonah Hex and Dresden Files and that still holds true, but now I’d add that it has a slight blend of Dracula and Interview with the Vampire mixed into this story, plus a nod to Stephen King. Dracula for introducing the characters of Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, and Jonathan Harker, the main protagonist in Dracula, while also giving Crowley a Van Helsing-like role. Interview with the Vampire for its setting of New Orleans, which is called Crescent City in this novel. Crescent City is the original nickname of New Orleans, and Castle & Bruno paint it as this swampy, southern gothic town that feels exactly like The Big Easy. To seal the N’awlins setting, they introduce the Nola voodoo queen herself, Marie Laveau. Adding all this on top of its celestial, divine-intervention plot really gives the story some added flair.
The uniqueness about this story still based solely around Crowley while having some great side characters like Shar, Rosa, Irish, Bram, Harker and Laveau, that Crowley gets to interact with. On the flip side, there are some new and old antagonists that show up like the Betrayer who was a shocking reveal that I didn’t see coming. The introduction of vampires, chupacabras, loup-garous (Cajun werewolves) and to top it off, a turtle-gator! Yes, a turtle-gator!
The narration by Roger Clark, aka Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2, is phenomenal. He makes the setting feel even more realistic than just the story itself. His deep voice can surprisingly even make female characters not sound masculine. The story itself is good, but he’s truly the best part of this series.
“My friend, I’ve been alive a long time. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that there are two things that must never be needlessly spilled: blood and good whiskey. That’s the one part of the Good Book I can’t find fault with.”
The timeline is a bit murky, the story is set in the mid-late 1800’s, and while clues of certain characters does help narrow a timeline, it also kinda puts it back into murky water again as some historical figures wouldn’t be around or alive around the time of someone else. That is likely why an actual timeline isn’t confirmed, so I still like the nod to help tie-in the N’awlins setting.
Like Cold as Hell, Vein Pursuits has a quick, action-packed pacing that feels like creatures are lurking around every corner. While this creates an exciting story, it sacrifices a lot of world-building and descriptions. There are times where it feels descriptive and then times where descriptions are just very minimalistic, maybe one is a strength of one author and a weakness of the other. Laveau’s snake, Damballah is never given any kind of description aside from “large snake”, no color, no pattern. I would’ve liked Crescent City to be fleshed out more rather than leaving it up to the imagination or visualization of New Orleans itself from media.
While Vein Pursuits has its faults that keep me from giving it more than 4.5 stars, it’s still an exciting ride through the supernatural swamps of old west of N’awlins. If you’re looking for a great weird western story with a great lead character and an awesome narrator, I highly recommend diving into The Black Badge series.
Wolfmantula.com 