Information exchanged with the dispatcher is done according to Code 61, which specifies that only non-specific data is transmitted by radio or phone to safeguard against interception by the media or police scanner buffs. A young woman has been found dead in a bathtub. The case takes an even more unpleasant turn when the woman is identified as Edith Younger, the niece of a colleague.

It quickly becomes apparent that the incident is a homicide. The victim has an elongated gash on her neck that was made by an unusual instrument, though the cause of death is reported as excessive blood loss. The medical examiner says that the gash was inflicted post mortem and the blood was lost via a small hole in her neck which was hidden by the gash. In addition, the woman had bruises like those often found in the elderly people taking blood thinners.

The circumstances of the death makes Carl recall a recent incident in which he was called to the home of Alicia Meyer. It seems Ms. Meyer had seen a man appearing in her window Spiderman style. The description she gave of her potential intruder matched a classic description of a vampire, which Carl knows do not exist. Yet the wound on Ms. Younger’s neck, together with her thin blood, suggests a vampire wannabe.

A word of caution is in order for potential readers. The blurbs on the back of the book imply a story replete with vampires and other sensational beings where legend becomes reality. The comments give little credit to a well written, realistic novel. The vampire element, while essential to the plot, is not the emphasis of author Harstad’s creation, a down to earth logically built police procedural.

Mr. Harstad, himself a deputy sheriff, writes a credible first person narrative told in the voice of Carl Houseman. Houseman carefully explains how a lawman conducts an investigation. From photographing the scene of the crime to conducting interviews with witnesses and suspects, concrete examples are given. He explains how the integrity of a crime scene is maintained, how to read body language, as well as language spoken or deliberately not. Methods of withholding information from the media seem to require a great deal of ingenuity.

The interaction between law officers is cleverly done. Not only does the author demonstrate the importance of utilizing each individual’s strength to further an investigation, he also shows his aptitude for injecting nontypical cop humor into the narrative. The characters are well drawn and realistic. They are not superhuman or omniscient. They make mistakes some of which turn out to be costly. The emphasis in this novel is on diligent, solid police work. In the two small instances where coincidence is involved, the author pays homage to serendipity and good fortune.

I must admit, having read the comments on the back cover, I approached this volume with little enthusiasm. I was not looking forward to four hundred and forty pages of vampires and ghouls. I was pleasantly surprised to find a wealth of well presented information on the workings of a small police department. Despite Houseman professing to be ignorant of the word IKEA on one page, and describing furniture as probably having been purchased from IKEA thus demonstrating he does know what it is, the novel is tightly and honestly written.

--Andy Plonka