Bloodhound Files series

Dying Bites (The Bloodhound Files -1) by D.D — Dying Bites (The Bloodhound Files #1) by D.D. Barant

Bloodhound Files series by D.D. Barant.

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Urban Fantasy / Alternative History / Fantasy–Mystery-Noir / Fantasy

Series Description or Overview[]

In DD Barant's thrilling contemporary fantasy and mystery series, FBI profiler Jace Valchek is pulled into a parallel universe to hunt a human serial killer who preys on vampires and werewolves. She works for the National Security Agency of the Unnatural States of America—and her boss is a vampire. Her job description is the “tracking and apprehension of mentally-fractured killers.” What this really means in Jace’s brave new world—one in which only one percent of the population is human—is that a woman’s work is never done. ~ Goodreads | The Bloodhound Files series

Themes[]

Portal to an alternate Seattle / America
Paranormal Detective, Phychologist
Vampires, Shifters, Golems, Sorcerers

Books in Series[]

Bloodhound Files series:

Dying Bites (2009)
Death Blows (2010)
Killing Rocks (2010)
Better Off Undead (2011)
Back from the Undead (2012)
Undead to the World (Nov 2012) ~ Final book

World Building[]

SETTING: Seattle, Thropirelem, Thropirelem version of Seattle, Alternate Seattle

Places:

Las Vegas, Nevada
Vancouver
Anchorage, Alaska
Missoula
Vegas
Panama
Chinatown
Mcmurdo Station
Heaven
Kansas
Tokyo
Japan
China
Canada
Uncertain: Gashadokuro, UrthboneHemo, Oni, Ghatanothoa, Nightshadow, Hokkaido, Lyrastoi, Stanhope, Bethel

Thropirelem: an alternative earth: same cities, countries, geography; similar history; similar technology. Here's the big difference: the population is composed primarily of vampires, shape shifters, and golems, with a tiny minority of humans, many of whom have magical talents.

Supernatual Elements[]

Vampires (pires), shape shifters (thropes), golems (lems), ghosts, portal, magic users, ancient god, shaman, magical sword, realm of Nightshadow, were-zebras, time travel, Japanese gods, Lovecraft’s gods, , , , , ,

World:[]

In this fresh take on the vampire myth, Special Agent Jacinda (Jace) Valchek is a 30-something, non-magical, human psychologist who works as an FBI profiler specializing in the criminally insane, and she's an expert at her job. One night, she is snatched up from her bedroom and pulled through a portal to an alternative earth: same cities, countries, geography; similar history; similar technology. Here's the big difference: the population is composed primarily of vampires, shape shifters, and golems, with a tiny minority of humans, many of whom have magical talents. Here's how Jace describes it: "I call this world Thropirelem, because the word neatly encapsulates the three main types of citizens: werewolves (thropes), vampires (pires), and golems (lems). Human beings make up a meager 1 percent of the worldwide population, less than a million people, and I'm one of them. So far." (Back from the Undead, p. 2)

Mental illness has never been an issue in Thropirelem because none of the supernaturals can be affected by it...but humans can. The supernaturals desperately need Jace's skills to track down Stoker, a psychotic human who is wreaking havoc among the supernaturals in this realm, and Jace's freedom rides on his capture. Jace will be working for the National Security Agency (NSA), which is based in the Thropirelem version of Seattle. Jace's freedom rides on his capture.

Most of the humans in Thropirelem were sacrificed by the pires back in 1945 as a gift to a god who, in return, gave them the ability to procreate. The few surviving humans are treated like most minorities, with disdain and with restrictions on their civil rights. Some of the pires and thropes also treat them as prey, nicknaming them OR, for Original Recipe. Naturally, there is a human resistance movement: the Free Human Resistance (FHA). In this realm, the lems are manufactured to be workers, while the pires and thropes are society's movers and shakers.

The series has two primary villains. First, is the ancient, powerful sorcerer, Ahaseurus (aka Asher), who dragged Jace into this dimension and seems to be obsessed with her. Asher is the only person who can safely return Jace to the mortal world. Unfortunately, he allies himself with the bad guys and soon disappears. The second villain is the tall, dark and dangerous human Jace is supposed to capture: Aristotle Stoker (a descendant of you know who). Stoker is a murderous nut job who hates all thropes and weres. He lives off the grid and knows how to keep himself hidden at all times. In book 2, Stoker challenges Jace to turn her back on her contract with the supernaturals and join the human resistance movement to save her own species, but Jace doesn’t trust him at all. By book 3, we can add Dr. Pete (now known as Tair, his evil alter-ego) to the list of villains after his identity is altered by a sorcerer's manipulation of magic. ~ Fang-tastic Fiction: D.D. Barant: THE BLOODHOUND FILES

Characters Chart[]

Characters	What	About
Jacinda (Jace) Valchek	Special Agent	30-something, non-magical, human psychologist who works as an FBI profiler specializing in the criminally insane
Charlie Alift	colleague, golem	sentient and well dressed; teases Jace
David Cassius	Jace's pire boss at the NSA	plan to rescue Jace from her thrope destiny; possible love interest
Pete Adams (aka Dr. Pete, Tair)	thrope medical doctor	possible love interest for Jace, becomes villian
Gretchen	pire team member	Jace's new BFF
Damon Eisfanger	thrope and shaman	forensic scientist
Ahaseurus (aka Asher)	ancient, powerful sorcerer, villian	dragged Jace into this dimension, obsessed with her
Aristotle Stoker	psychotic human, villian	wreaking havoc among the supernaturals
Silver Blue	black-market weapons supplier	another villian
Azura (aka Astonisher)	mage, ally	from the realm of Nightshadow
Zang	Stoker’s supposed informant	betrayed Jace and Charlie
Tanaka	one-time lover	betrayed Jace
Isamu	Japanese shaman	vowed to terminate her Jace
Terrance
Charlie Adams	owner of the local bar	Thropirelem, Kansas
Terrance	local bully	Thropirelem, Kansas
Gallowsman	town's legendary horror figure	He kills for despair, to die by their own hand

To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table or Column (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column.

Author[]

D.D. Barant

Website: ddbarant.com

Bio: DD Barant lives in Vancouver, BC, and loves monsters, chocolate, animals, reading, comics and lying naked on the beach, while hating bullies, narrow-minded people, Sea Urchin Sushi and gluten. He has stated that D.D. Barant is a pseudonym, and that it is not the only pseudonym under which he writes. ~ D D Barant - fF

Cover Artist[]

Artist: Tony Mauro

Siource: Publication Listing

Publishing Information[]

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks, Macmillan
Author Page: DD Barant | Authors | Macmillan
Series Page: Macmillan: Series: The Bloodhound Files: Books
Bk-1: Paperback, 304 pages, Pub Jun 30th 2009

Book Cover Blurbs[]

✤ BOOK ONE BLURB—Dying Bites (2009): Her job description is the “tracking and apprehension of mentally-fractured killers.” What this really means in FBI profiler Jace Valchek’s brave new world—one in which only one percent of the population is human—is that a woman’s work is never done. And real is getting stranger every day… Jace has been ripped from her reality by David Cassius, the vampire head of the NSA. He knows that she’s the best there in the business, and David needs her help in solving a series of gruesome murders of vampires and werewolves. David’s world—one that also includes lycanthropes and golems—is one with little knowledge of mental illness. An insane serial killer is a threat the NSA has no experience with. But Jace does. Stranded in a reality where Bela Lugosi is a bigger box office draw than Bruce Willis and every full moon is Mardi Gras, Jace must now hunt down a fellow human before he brings the entire planet to the brink of madness. Or she may never see her own world again. ~ Goodreads | Dying Bites

✤ BOOK TWO—Death Blows (2010): FBI profiler Jace Valchek was pulled into this parallel realm to hunt for Aristotle Stoker, a human serial killer who preys on vampires and werewolves. Now she works for the National Security Agency of the Unnatural States of America - and her boss is a vampire. At a bizarre crime scene, Jace finds a bloodsucker murdered by magic, fried to the bone and dressed in the costume of the comic book hero the Flash - a character who isn't supposed to exist here. Comic books have been outlawed for their powers, including crossover spells like the one that transported Jace to this world. Soon, she's following a trail of dead bodies into the sinister underworld of black-market comics - where a deranged madman gives new meaning to the term "super-villain." ~ Goodreads | Death Blows (The Bloodhound Files, #2) by D.D. Barant

✤ BOOK THREE—Killing Rocks (2010): FBI profiler Jace Valchek’s ticket home from the twisted parallel universe where she’s been called to duty hinges on the capture of serial killer Aristotle Stoker—and an alliance with a sorcerer known as Asher. The problem: Asher has joined forces with some of the most dangerous creatures Jace has ever encountered. The solution: There is none, without Asher’s help… Jace’s goal seems simple enough—to get her man, like always. But just hours after she arrives in Vegas, she’s abducted…and she isn’t even sure who the real enemy is. Now Jace has to wonder if she’s the predator or the prey in a very dangerous game that could change not only her fate, but the world’s…Meanwhile, a serial killer is still on the loose. And time has already run out. ~ Goodreads | Killing Rocks (The Bloodhound Files, #3) by D.D. Barant

✤ BOOK FOUR—Better Off Undead (2011): Dark magic, unknown enemies, monsters of every stripe—FBI profiler Jace Valchek has seen it all. In this bizarre parallel universe, shape-shifting werewolves and blood-thirsty vampires don't even warrant a raised eyebrow. That is, until Jace has to face what life might look like as one of them … It starts off as just another run-of-the-mill assignment: to track down the rogue don of a mafia werewolf family before he upsets the delicate balance of the underworld. But Jace wasn't counting on being bitten…and soon she's fighting the growing wolf inside her with a startling antidote—vampirism. Stopping a bloody gangland war won't be easy when Jace is feeling some new, and very inhuman, desires … In Better Off Undead, Book 4 in The Bloodhound Files, DD Barant takes Jace farther than ever before ... and the result is "A stellar addition to an already outstanding series" (RT Book Reviews). ~ Goodreads | Better Off Undead (The Bloodhound Files, #4) by D.D. Barant

✤ BOOK FIVE—Back from the Undead (2012): nother work day, another case for the Bloodhound Files. But this time, Jace is truly stumped: How is she, a mere human, supposed to penetrate the dark heart of a child-trafficking ring of pire orphans—one that turns out to be part of a blood-farm operation, in the crime-ridden border city of Vancouver, British Columbia? Jace is in over her head. But with the help of her former lover, Tanaka—whose family is one of the last samurai clans left in Japan—she stands a chance at seeking justice for the condemned children... Until the Yakuza tries to put an end to Jace's investigation. Jace risks more than death—this time, it's the fate of her very soul that's in danger. ~ Goodreads | Back from the Undead (The Bloodhound Files, #5) by D.D. Barant

✤ BOOK SIX—Undead to the World (2012) ~ Final book: Jace’s return to Kansas is an instant reminder that there really is no place like home. The tavern is still brimming with losers, practical jokers, and motorcycle chicks. Even the town’s only Goth is still wearing eyeliner. But just as Jace is about to click her heels and hightail out of there, she’s roped into a brand-new case. Somebody is possessed. And the bodies are piling up… They call him the Gallowsman. According to legend, he was sentenced to hang—though his crimes still have not been specified. When he was strung up to die, his spirit stuck around waiting for people to hang themselves…so he could steal their bodies. Now, with the undead rising up and going on a rampage, Jace must put her own neck on the line. Can she get the Gallowsman to give up the ghost? ~ Goodreads | Undead to the World (The Bloodhound Files, #6) by D.D. Barant

First Sentences[]

Dying Bites: I think about monsters a lot. Real ones, I mean, not Frankenstein or Dracula or Godzilla.
Death Blows: All I can see through the night vision goggles are the eyes of the vampire I'm pressed against; the rest of his face is kind of obscured by the large-caliber handgun I have jabbed up his nose.
Killing Rocks: I have this recurring dream where I've been ordered by a federal judge to join a support group.
Better Off Undead: There's something about being driven to prison that makes you think about the past.
Back from the Undead: One night.
Undead to the World: My name is Jace Valchek, and I'm pretty sure I'm going insane.

~ Shelfari

Quotes[]

“Stubborn, too?” “Yes, ma’am,” he says with a smile. “Though I prefer the term ‘option recognition deficient.’ ”
“I talk better when I’m drinking coffee.” “Me, too. If by coffee you mean beer, and by better you mean louder.”
The more desirable you are, the more power you have, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
when you know life isn’t forever, the decisions you make matter. You don’t have the next hundred years to try to fix a mistake.
attentive-one-minute, distant-the-next routine? That’s the very first lesson in Bad Boys 101 or How to Act Like a Dick and Drive Jane Crazy.
If he’s looking for an apology, he’s going to need a flashlight, a proctologist, and yoga lessons.
“I realize that in your world, magic is something only children believe in. Here, it is real. You were brought through an interdimensional portal by extremely powerful sorcery, and it was not done lightly. We need your help.”

On the surface, he seemed to have it all: brains, ambitions, looks, charm. Great in bed. But let’s face it, that’s not a type—that’s a fantasy. Guys who have that much to offer up front tend to be self-centered and shallow underneath.
I don’t do romance, in the same way that I don’t do heroin, Russian roulette, or nude alligator wrestling. I consider all of the above to be stupid, self-destructive, and demeaning.

From Killing Rocks, in which Jace muses about magic: "When I first arrived in...Thropirelem...I quickly learned to detest magic. Magic is a detective's worst enemy; it breaks all the rules you need to rely on, it's contradictory and unreliable and frequently makes no damn sense whatsoever. However, over time, I've come to a grudging acceptance of the situation." (p. 202)

"I call this world Thropirelem, because the word neatly encapsulates the three main types of citizens: werewolves (thropes), vampires (pires), and golems (lems). Human beings make up a meager 1 percent of the worldwide population, less than a million people, and I'm one of them. So far." (Back from the Undead, p2)