Review: Unhallowed Murder: A Murder-Mystery Romance

Unhallowed Murder: A Murder-Mystery Romance by Candace Blevins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Halloween isn't complete if there isn't a spooky fun house. For Veronica Woods aka Ronnie, she's been coaxed to dress up as one of the Power Rangers. Expecting a night of fun with friends, the last thing she expects is to have to pull out her badge and work a homicide. When an extra body shows up in the zombie display, things are about to get heated.

This story is a new direction for Ms. Blevins and I love it. She easily marries up a murder mystery into her paranormal romance world. Not sure what to expect, I enjoyed the procedural writing style. It makes me think and try to figure out... "whodunnit?" This stimulates and engages my mind. I'm following along with Ronnie to piece the clues together and figure out the killer. I am pretty happy that I figured it out early on. This is because Ms. Blevins laid enough clues out for me to see the big picture and pinpoint who committed the crime. Similar to how Ms. Nora Roberts started off in Romance and expanded into Mystery, I can see Ms. Blevins take off in the same way.

This is more than a murder mystery. There is also a romance brewing between Ronnie and a new to me character, Josef. Josef is a centuries old vampire who respects someone who can take charge. It's been centuries since a female of any sort intrigued him. I'm mixed about Josef. He's the silent type whose still waters run deep. I think we haven't seen the real Josef yet because he is on his best behaviour. It could be my personal preference, but I found Josef to be more erotic when he fed off of females other than Ronnie. This romance is vanilla and it as such, my attention wandered away from the sexual interludes between the two. Their relationship and interaction was more interesting to me than their physical acts of intimacy. At first I thought the story may be more kinky because of how Josef first fed on a female wolf. That had my blood heating up and my engine revving. Then my sex engine stalled and shut down. This is not a bad thing because then I focused more on the plot and the character development.

For those who have read the Only Human series, there are a few teaser scenes in here that contain more meaning... specifically the ones involving Nathan. I liked how Nathan's issues with the vampires is woven into this story line because it gives this world a more cohesive feel. Seeing how the shifter and undead world can overlap makes relationships complicated. The layering of threads makes this a richer world building and provides a depth that is more three dimensional. I am in awe of authors who can do this so well. This book contains many elements that will appeal to a wider audience. Highly recommended to paranormal romance readers and mystery lovers.

* I received a copy from the author. No review was required. I wrote one anyway