Product Description: Captain John Drummond of the LAPD is investigating an unsolved murder from more than thirty years ago-six unidentified men, bearing Nazi SS tattoos, drained of blood-that echoes a series of unexplained deaths around the world.
But these murders go back further than he expected-to World War II, to the time of the Crusades, and to a group of Knights Templar who have lived for centuries...
Knights of the Blood 'Knights of the Blood', by Katherine Kurtz, and Scott MacMillan, finds Detective John Drummond investigating a murder case that begins strange, and gets stranger as he digs deeper. Does the body of the victim, covered in Nazi tattoos and completely drained of blood, really have a connection with an uncaught serial killer from many years before? Or has Drummond stumbled into the middle of an ancient blood feud that is even more deadly?
Flawed, but fun I think that your enjoyment of Knights of the Blood is dependant on two factors: your expectations and whether or not you are familiar with the author's previous work. When I picked up Knights of the Blood, I was completely unfamiliar with either author, and had no expectations other than to be entertained for a few hours, so I ended up fairly happy with the book.
Knights of the blood benefits from an interesting concept, namely an ancient order of Crusader Knights-turned-vampires battling a sinister order of Nazi vampires - what's not to like? I love a good vampire story, and this had the makings of a great one. Unfortunately the book suffers from poor execution. The writing is at times clumsy, the research seems a bit weak, the characters aren't as developed as they could be, etc. Given the subject matter I didn't expect greatness. After all, Salem's Lot and Vampire$ are the exceptions, not the rule. Still, a bit more professionalism would have helped.
In the end, Knights of the Blood delivered exactly what I expected - a fun book to occupy a few hours of my time. If you're into this kind of story, and aren't expecting high literature, you'll probably enjoy the book as well. It's not one you'll find yourself reaching for again, though. This one is strictly a "read it and trade it in" book.
Congrats, dear authors. You blew it. Amazing. Reading other books from Katherine Kurtz, I expected, like many other readers, more from this... ahemm... series. What rattles me is rather simple. The basic idea behind the story is rather promising for a fictional story. The research done though to write the story is, how to put it politely...not very professional. You can't translate English into German by just looking up the words in a dictionary. If it were that easy, wow, I'd be fluent in more languages than you could shake a stick at. Ever heard of Grammar, Scott and Katherine? Sentence structure? Or, 'lo and behold, the fact that the meaning of a word can translate into more than one meaning in another language? Just a quick example. The German word 'sensibel' translates to 'sensitive' in English, not 'sensible' as one might think. We call words like these 'false friends', and boy, did you manage to find a lot of them. Next: Geography. For crying out loud, pick up a road atlas the next time you want to bring some scenery into a story. Please. The distances this bloke travels are stunning. Look it up yourself, think how fast he must drive to get from point to point and then shake your head as well in amazement. Sloppy work, my dear authors, bad and sloppy work. And please, if you need to come up with castlenames, go for something believable. The direct translation of the showdown in the second book might sound stunning in English, but elicits only a wince of pain from anyone knowledgeable in the language the authors clearly are not capable of. I got to wonder why noone had someone proofread the books before they went into print. Enough former GIs and their families who used to live in (southern to middle) Germany for quite a while, and quite well know the locations and the language. Not to speak of the people who picked up German in College. As to the question of a third book? Don't...unless you do some research, alright?
Good, Fun Book I'm a little bewildered by some of the reviews below. The first review was my first guess that the cup in question was the Holy Grail. I understood it simply to be a sacramental cup from a church. The blood drinking is a very Medieval thing, though a bit pagan in origin (drinking of an enemies blood transfers their power to you). It's a book that doesn't take itself too seriously... It's fun, I heartily look forward to the third book in the series. Maybe it's not for fans of the authors wife , but I think she'd disagree... maybe it is only for those fans who can enjoy a book without a running list of criticisms.
Quit yer whining, Kurtz fans! I discovered the Deryni novels in the early 80's and eagerly await each one as it is published. I, too, was first attracted to Knights of the Blood on the strength of Katherine Kurtz' name, but immediately noticed that she was credited only as co-creator. I agree that Scott MacMillan's writing is not up to par with his wife's, but that isn't to say that the story is not engaging. I have enjoyed the books, although a globe-trotting millionaire homicide detective on the trail of Nazi vampires can seem a bit much sometimes, especially with his spur-of-the-moment sexual encounter. All-in-all, though, the books are extremely readable and enjoyable, and I have been waiting for book #3 for several years now, along with the next Deryni book. Are the MacMillans listening?
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