Author: Caleb James
Publisher: DSP Publications
Length: 294 Pages
Category: Paranormal, Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: Dark Blood is gruesome, fast paced, and has a lot of tension-filled moments, with some very intriguing twists and turns.
Reviewed By: Maryann
Blurb: Handsome, brilliant, and surrounded by good friends, twenty-three-year-old medical student Miles Fox has a secret—and it’s not that he’s gay. Though he harbors a crush on his straight best friend, Luke. Miles, like his grandmother, Anna, possesses the healing gift, an ability she’s made him swear never to use or divulge, lest horrible things befall those he loves. It happened to her when Nazis butchered her family.
But it all goes to hell when Miles heals a terminally ill man on a New Orleans cancer ward and wakes locked in the psych unit. Worse, news of the healing miracle spreads. For millennia, its carriers have been hunted by those who would steal it. Dr. Gerald Stangl and his teenage son, Calvin, know what Miles possesses. They, like their predecessors, will stop at nothing to take it, including kidnapping, torture, and murder. As the Stangls’ noose tightens, Miles and Luke are trapped in a death match with stakes higher than they could ever imagine.
Review: In the year 1212, Zosimus stole the gypsy Marta’s gift and lived for over a thousand years. But, did he really steal the gift, or was it given out of love?
At the age of six, Miles Fox, out of fear and not understanding, makes a promise to his Grandmother Anna that he would never use his gift again. She warns him if he does, and others find out, everyone in his family would be hunted and killed. At the age of eight, Miles was taken to see Dr. Gerald Stangl, a physchiatrist, because he could hear the voice of his deceased great-grandfather Tomas. When Stangl tries to get Miles locked up, his parents refuse. Years later, Dr. Stangl shows up once again in Miles’ life.
Miles is now a doctor-in-training at Mercy Memorial Hospital. While making his rounds, he runs across a small boy who begs him to make his father well. Miles makes a decision to use his gift, and finds himself in a dangerous and horrific situation. As dangerous a situation as it is, though, Miles has someone who believes in him and takes a risk to help—Luke Paxton, his best friend.
Most of this story takes place at Lakeview Hospital, which was once the Louisiana Hospital for the Insane, in 1878, where lobotomies, ice baths, and insulin shock therapy were performed on patients. There’s a creepy history that’s connected with the old hospital, dating back to 1943, and Dr. Stangl has a personal connection to the hospital. Dr. Stangl’s son, Calvin, also adds his own brand of creepy to this tale.
Dark Blood is a creative and a well written paranormal story with a little bit of myth added in. There are parts of this story that you will want to read with the lights on, especially going into the bowels of Lakeview Hospital. It’s gruesome, fast paced, and has a lot of tension-filled moments, with some very intriguing twists and turns. This storyline also brings different perspectives of what “Holy Grail” is. Could it be a person or a gift? The combination of both? Is it love or eternal life?
This book is a first time read for me from Caleb James, and I found him to be a talented writer. I am definitely hooked on the Dark Blood Saga and can’t wait to see what he has planned for a sequel.
You can buy Dark Blood here:
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