Blood Runs Deep (Alcarez-Moreno Files, 2) by Michael Procopio

[Ulysses]

Blood Runs Deep (Alvarez-Moreno Files, 2)
By Michael Procopio
Magic Lemon Tree Books, 2024
Four stars

Here we are again, with Mateo, his boyfriend doctor (OB-GYN) Rahul, his friends from the Red Flags television debacle—and his DOSA colleagues.

It’s a rather grim world Michael Procopio envisions—different from the usual world-building in which magic and magical creatures try to coexist. This world feels particularly ill-prepared to deal with magical creatures (or at least the evil ones, who seem to be the only ones involved). Mateo and his crew prepare to grapple with another reality TV series—this one featuring vampires trying to establish themselves in public opinion as “normal people”—even as Mateo and Rahul have to grapple personally with the fact that Mateo is a workaholic and unable to resist the lure of a potential monster throw-down.

The wry twist here is that the vampires involved are Blake’s entire family (parents and two sisters) as well as Mateo’s sister Camila, whose transformation into the undead broke his family apart years before. Although Mateo is, technically, a demon slayer, apparently this includes vampires. I can see that it makes sense, but of course I’m sad that once more vampires are cast as inherently and inescapably evil (since I devoted two entire novels to the premise that vampires could be good guys and did not need to kill to survive). I approve, however, that there is no backsliding here. I can’t abide the celebration of killers, and if you’re going to posit evil vampires, then they must be killed.

Just as in the first book of this series (Red Flags), there is a quirky tonal quality to this story, shifting from dark and bloody to slightly “I Love Lucy,” with Mateo and his friends bantering about life and love as they clumsily attempt to stave off the end of the world at the hands of their vampire relatives. For all that Mateo keeps professing his highly-trained skills, I couldn’t help but notice that Mateo and everyone at DOSA (Department Supernatural Activity) are often incompetent and almost always under-informed. This is no accident, and I suspect that Procopio is calculating these shifts in mood and knows full well the sense of frustration and confusion the readers will feel. There is constant emotional upheaval in these books, and the author clearly revels in it.

As with Red Flags, there is a surprising amount of mayhem in this story, and a neat cliff-hanger hook at the end. Of course we’re going to read the next book.