BLOOD BLADE: SKINNERS BOOK 1

BLOOD BLADE: SKINNERS BOOK 1
Author: Marcus Pelegrimas
Copyright February 2009
Eos: Harper Collins
Paperback $ 7.99
ISBN: 978-0-06-146305-1
336 pages

For someone to actually create a new way to deal with werewolves and vampires that demonstrates imagination, is a feat rarely seen, but finally is actually achieved. BLOOD BLADE which is the first book in the SKINNERS series, masters this newest vein for a horror series.

Everyone at some time experiences burnout and that is exactly the problem Cole Warneki has as a video game developer. His creative inventiveness is just overwhelmed and he cannot create. He decides to get away for a short, relaxing adventure in the Canadian wilderness. He has apprehensions when the plane is not at the luxury and comfort level that he expected, the trip to the cabin is hours late and in an old pickup truck, and the cabin is not quite a resort. In fact it resembles a ramshackle- camp cabin.

Almost immediate something is attacking those around the cabin. The attacker is larger, faster than a normal human, and bullet resistant. The only people causing any damage to the creature are two men who assist and protect Cole. They tell him to contact a particular phone number and to give this blood blade to a particular person if anything should happen to them. Even with many people against the one attacker, Cole observes and prepares himself for almost certain death as he is knocked into an unconscious state.

Cole awakens and surprisingly finds himself alive and observes that he is the only survivor. He uses the satellite phone to call the number given to him. A vehicle is sent to meet him and to transport him to Chicago to be debriefed. This hurtles him into the world of werewolves and vampires, Full Bloods, Half Bloods, shifters, and Skinners. Skinners are the ones who protect the general population from these creatures.

The horror/action/adventure is non-stop in pacing. The book leaps into the action almost immediately and doesn’t slow down until the last page. The vagueness of new rules for handling these creatures, works in this novel as the reader, along with Cole, learns about Skinners, the creatures, and how to survive.

For a new series, SKINNERS works. This first book is BLOOD BLADE and the next book which is due out this year will be HOWLING LEGION. I personally am looking forward to this continual story in this new and inventive series.

Marcus Pelegrimas has written a western series, THE MAN FROM BOOT HILL, under the pen name of Marcus Galloway. He has also ghostwritten published work in a western series. He has written other works in the mystery, fiction, and horror genres.