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Evenings on Dark Island
A fast, fang-in-cheek romp through one crazy week at The Spa at Dark Island, an exclusive retreat for the dysfunctional rich, and home to a clan of misfit vampires.
330 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 3, 2010
What do the rich and famous, a Florida swamp, an expensive upscale spa, a rat-faced dog, state-of-the-art galas, NASCAR, pot, an inner garden of rare hybrid plants and vampires have in common?
The standard answer is nothing.
But in Evenings on Dark Island authors Rhett DeVane and Larry Rock have turned the highly improbable into a hilarious and tastefully bloody neck biter that's quite something.
Vincent Bedsloe, who has party planning in blood that's not altogether his, is the flamboyant, details-oriented master of an exclusive spa set in the middle of an isolated Florida island where the rich and spoiled come to be drained of their income--and perhaps a bit more--while they are ramped up into an ecstatic level of health and fitness.
Bedsloe, who ponders over the emotions of his guests--emotions he no longer has--often retreats into an inner sanctum where he watches old movies and gets his kicks by debunking the silly vampire lore flowing out of Hollywood like blood from a burst artery.
Vincent is a kind-hearted vampire who cares about his human guests. Even his NASCAR-crazed, white trash vampire mechanic Jimmy Rob has an occasional redeeming thought: "He led her to the far, shadowy corner of the bar, behind a thick hedge. Kissed her again. Nibbled her neck. Bit down and drank until he felt her knees buckle. He pulled back abruptly. No need to kill the gal. She'd had a hard enough life."
The only somewhat normal person in the book is DEA agent Reanita Geneva Register who has been inserted into the mix by the Feds at great expense to prove the obscure island is a haven for drug smugglers. Posing as a rich heiress, Register not only feels naked without her gun but a little nonplussed by her ability to enjoy the island's pleasures.
The tight-lipped Dark Island staff are notoriously loyal to their employer and, with the annual Blue Blood Ball benefit for the American Hemophiliac Association fast approaching, much too busy to be easily questioned about the strange boats passing in the night.
The authors advertise Evenings on Dark Island as a fang-in-tooth spoof of the vampire genre. And what a spoof it is. This book is not only inventive and well crafted, but it's filled with the kinds of one-liners and puns that will even wake the undead.
The plot, characters and setting work to perfection without blood, gore and body counts. While the spa at Dark Island may not be the transfusion you need for your physical health and well being in real life, DeVane's and Rock's collaboration has a high-clotting factor as well as the kinds of hijinks that will have you laughing all the way to the blood bank.
The standard answer is nothing.
But in Evenings on Dark Island authors Rhett DeVane and Larry Rock have turned the highly improbable into a hilarious and tastefully bloody neck biter that's quite something.
Vincent Bedsloe, who has party planning in blood that's not altogether his, is the flamboyant, details-oriented master of an exclusive spa set in the middle of an isolated Florida island where the rich and spoiled come to be drained of their income--and perhaps a bit more--while they are ramped up into an ecstatic level of health and fitness.
Bedsloe, who ponders over the emotions of his guests--emotions he no longer has--often retreats into an inner sanctum where he watches old movies and gets his kicks by debunking the silly vampire lore flowing out of Hollywood like blood from a burst artery.
Vincent is a kind-hearted vampire who cares about his human guests. Even his NASCAR-crazed, white trash vampire mechanic Jimmy Rob has an occasional redeeming thought: "He led her to the far, shadowy corner of the bar, behind a thick hedge. Kissed her again. Nibbled her neck. Bit down and drank until he felt her knees buckle. He pulled back abruptly. No need to kill the gal. She'd had a hard enough life."
The only somewhat normal person in the book is DEA agent Reanita Geneva Register who has been inserted into the mix by the Feds at great expense to prove the obscure island is a haven for drug smugglers. Posing as a rich heiress, Register not only feels naked without her gun but a little nonplussed by her ability to enjoy the island's pleasures.
The tight-lipped Dark Island staff are notoriously loyal to their employer and, with the annual Blue Blood Ball benefit for the American Hemophiliac Association fast approaching, much too busy to be easily questioned about the strange boats passing in the night.
The authors advertise Evenings on Dark Island as a fang-in-tooth spoof of the vampire genre. And what a spoof it is. This book is not only inventive and well crafted, but it's filled with the kinds of one-liners and puns that will even wake the undead.
The plot, characters and setting work to perfection without blood, gore and body counts. While the spa at Dark Island may not be the transfusion you need for your physical health and well being in real life, DeVane's and Rock's collaboration has a high-clotting factor as well as the kinds of hijinks that will have you laughing all the way to the blood bank.
July 22, 2010
Patrons return each year to the Spa at Dark Island where the many amenities rejuvenate and replenish them and provide an escape from their real lives. Vincent Bledsloe is their smoking jacket wearing, Cuban cigar smoking host, who along with his rat-faced gardener, Arby, and the tight-lipped but pleasant staff, caters to the clients' every need.
Enter DEA agent Reanita Geneva Register, posing as the daughter of an oil baron to uncover illegal activities on the island. This week she is spending time with an actor well past his prime, a vamp starlet, and the wife of a well-known senator. If Vincent and Arby can keep their newest guest, Ms. Register, from tramping through the trails and being attacked by alligators and bitten by snakes, perhaps planning for the Blue Blood Ball will go off smoothly. Well, that is if Vincent can keep a redneck NASCAR loving vampire away and tame his high-maintenance vampiress lover and her ill-tempered undead Chihuahua.
In this entertaining vampire spoof, authors Rhett DeVane and Larry Rock have combined the vampire craze with everything southern, tossing in some quirky characters along the way to bring you a book you'll want to read more than once.
I had read DeVane's earlier work, and while her flair for bringing the south to life is definitely a big part of this novel, it is her characters that shine through once again and make this a spectacular read. One cannot attempt to read a book by this author without getting involved in their characters' lives.
Rock appears to have provided a great deal of research to this novel in the form of party planning and gardening. The reader soon discovers that the rat-faced Arby, who has been accepted by no one until Vincent came along, is in the midst of preparing the largest event of the year, the Blue Blood Ball. He also mixes and breeds different and unique species of plants, many of which he uses in his herbal remedies.
I loved this book. Evenings at Dark Island is definitely a book worth spending time on.
Enter DEA agent Reanita Geneva Register, posing as the daughter of an oil baron to uncover illegal activities on the island. This week she is spending time with an actor well past his prime, a vamp starlet, and the wife of a well-known senator. If Vincent and Arby can keep their newest guest, Ms. Register, from tramping through the trails and being attacked by alligators and bitten by snakes, perhaps planning for the Blue Blood Ball will go off smoothly. Well, that is if Vincent can keep a redneck NASCAR loving vampire away and tame his high-maintenance vampiress lover and her ill-tempered undead Chihuahua.
In this entertaining vampire spoof, authors Rhett DeVane and Larry Rock have combined the vampire craze with everything southern, tossing in some quirky characters along the way to bring you a book you'll want to read more than once.
I had read DeVane's earlier work, and while her flair for bringing the south to life is definitely a big part of this novel, it is her characters that shine through once again and make this a spectacular read. One cannot attempt to read a book by this author without getting involved in their characters' lives.
Rock appears to have provided a great deal of research to this novel in the form of party planning and gardening. The reader soon discovers that the rat-faced Arby, who has been accepted by no one until Vincent came along, is in the midst of preparing the largest event of the year, the Blue Blood Ball. He also mixes and breeds different and unique species of plants, many of which he uses in his herbal remedies.
I loved this book. Evenings at Dark Island is definitely a book worth spending time on.
October 3, 2010
There are elements from just about every vampire book out there in this little tome. The story line was good, the characterization could have been richer though some of the characters themselves were interesting. There were paragraphs that could have been eliminated all together though the book could actually have been longer.
March 8, 2011
Hysterical book about a gay vampire that runs a spa on Dark Island. He has to keep an eye on the NASCAR loving vampire that also inhabits the Island.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews