This popped up to the top of the “to read” pile and I could only wish it has shown up sooner. Not your typical vampire hunter novel, this one is populated with rich, nuanced characters on both sides, indeed it is somewhat difficult to be sure which side is actually the “bad guys”.

Dawn Madison reluctantly returns to LA to look for her missing father. Once there she meets his co-workers, Kiko, a psychic who is also an aspiring actor (and, oh yes, a little person) and Breisi, a gadget wizard and former actress, both of whom work for the investigative agency Limpet and Assoc, owned and run by the mysterious Jonah Limpet, heard but never seen. Dawn finds herself drawn into the same investigation her father was following when he disappeared - the mysterious sighting on film of a long dead child actor.

The path of the investigation shows Dawn a side of LA she never knew existed, vampires and psychics, and, as she delves deeper into the sordid underside of Hollywood she begins to wonder just what she has let herself in for.

The story moves swiftly, I read it in one sitting. The bad guys are not clearly evil and the good guys, at least Jonah Limpet, are mysterious and evasive enough to make one wonder about their real motives in searching for the vampires. I got a bit tired of Dawn’s constant inner struggle to deal with not being as beautiful as her dead movie star mother but that was a minor irritation in a book that overall was an excellent read. There are two sexually suggestive scenes which did nothing to advance the story but seem to be required these days. Parents may wish to read the book first to determine suitability for their teenage readers. As for me, I will now be on the look out for the rest of the books in this series. Recommended - Stephanie L Bannon