Cave's Dark Mistress and Cave's deadly Beauties

Another short thriller from C. C. Blake, "Cave's Deadly Beauties" find its hero in the role of a detective for the Supernatural Underground. He's tracking down a supernatural killer who is stalking mortals and vamps alike. A beautiful vampire girl has the key to the killer's identity. Cave is a Robert Mitchum kind of guy, equal parts romantic lead and violent hero. A lot of this story finds him grappling with his own loneliness. There's a gal (Morven) who left Cave after a single night of passion. What's neat is how different the Cave character is in the various stories. Well, he's always a good guy, but Cave is like Robert Howard's Conan: he takes on different roles in his different stories, but they all feel believable. Natural. In "Cave's Deadly Beauties", he's a haunted detective trying to do right by his ghosts (and the Underground's mysterious Council), no matter what. It's unusual to find a story that's both meditative and exciting, moving and sexy and fun. ~~*~~ Cave's Dark Mistress is one hell of an exciting read. A short story written in the action packed style of the pulps, one part crime, one part weird tale and pure adrenaline. The story starts with a bang, Cave trying to pick the lock on an evidence locker shed in small town Maine, and then it kicks out all the stops. It feeds back story in just the right doses, filling in the blanks without stopping the forward momentum. Fun characters, weird happenings, a good plot and a fast pace--Blake's story is pure entertainment, and what could be better than that?