Vamparazzi is the fourth book in the Esther Diamond series by Laura Resnick. I listened to the audiobook from Graphic Audio, narrated by a full cast and music. This is a paranormal comedy with a mystery and some action on top of it.
The story starts with Esther being in a stage production about vampires, being once again the scantily dressed female, but at least this time the production is a popular one, filled with fans swooning over the male lead, Damien, who’s claiming to be a vampire. Things get turn up side down when a fan of Damiens get murdered and all his blood is drained. Esther finds out that vampires are real and a part of Max past comes into play as they try to figure out who the vampire is but aren’t allowed to intervene because of an old treaty signed by Max.
Esther is her usual snarky self; Max is just adorable and awesome. Lopez is starting to overstay his welcome, I’m not sure if the author knows what to do with him by this point. We get to know more abut Esther’s manager who isn’t all what he seems to be, while introducing us to some quirky characters. Mostly there for jokes.
This is the first book where the author breaks the perspective of Esther, giving us some storylines from Max perspective as he tell us about his past and how he encountered the horrid Lithuanians he seem to fear so much. The running joke of Lithuanians don’t seem to be explained too much though, but I guess he just don’t want to walk in on vampire business. The problem with changing the perspective is that the author goes all the why. In the story Max first tell us what happen in his past, then the author shows us by giving us a flashback. It was a bit over the top, just pick one or the other. Don’t both tell us and show us what happened.
The mystery itself was fine, better structured than the first book and the book did get some chuckles out of me. It hit just the right spot and I quite liked it. The author also tried to put her own spin on the vampire myth, making the vampire lore feel more unique than the traditional vampire from the Hollywood movies and the like. In fact, the inaccurate depiction of vampires in media is constantly mocked.
There are two things I’m starting to dislike, the first is the lack of development of Esther. I love her personality and dialog but she feels like the side character of her own story. She is the main character but it is the characters around her that matters and solves the cases while she stumbles onto the scene. I mean, in Unsympathetic Magic she even just becomes the kidnapped woman they need to save at the end. It’s her ex-boyfriend, or boyfriend, Lopez who gets the supernatural powers, and speaking of annoyance. Lopez is slowly starting to overstay his welcome. His cynical attitude isn’t changing and the relationship between Lopez and Esther is going nowhere. I am slowly starting to tire of their back and forth and I do hope the author does something about it, either give it meaning or remove it from the story.
Overall, it was a good book. I would say with the better mystery, action, and lore building it is close to the first book but is focused very differently. In the first book, the humor was clearly in focused, often a bit exaggerated. Here it is more toned down, still funny but more carefully applied. Making it less like a cartoon and more like a cake on top of the main course. All in all, I would give it a 7 out of 10. It is an entertaining book for those who like fast paced action, humor with a bit of a paranormal mystery on the side.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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