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MY REVIEW

Sinjen, the vampire, takes a vacation, his first time off in fifty years. He’s taking his Thrall, Jack, his human friends, Miriam and Richard, and his lost love, Carlotta to a caste where they will play a murder mystery game.

I love Sinjen. He’s a complicated vampire. He is needy, looking for love, for a reason to get up each night. He searches for a reason to live, and I think he found it when he met Miriam. He won’t change her, won’t keep her for himself. But, his friend, who he thought was his thrall, is in love with her and she seems to be attracted to him too. Will Richard and Miriam marry? Probably.

With Miriam he has found a new vocation? Solving mysteries. Their first, which was supposed to be a game, turned into exposing the rogue vampire that is killing people in a most gruesome and torturous way.

The event takes place in a castle, so will there be a ghost or two?

We have a snowstorm and they are cut off from the world. Is it Aster’s doing? Aster is a vampire that dominates all others. I thought it was him, but when they discover the group is not the only vampires, Aster finds it is better not to use his ability to control the weather. Still, a vampire is never stranded and I was surprised when Sinjen turned into a wolf. I knew they misted, which was cool. He also has the ability to hypnotize people, so he can take a sip or two and wipe their minds.

I am hooked on these characters. Sinjen is such a unique vampire. He is so needy, yet strong and savage when necessary. He is dominated by Eliza, a cruel mistress that revels in his pain, but now, since The Mystery Game, Aster has given him an out and he plans on using it to his advantage. I can hardly wait to see what his next adventure will be.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Mystery Game by Michael B Chikondi.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos — 4 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

With his first time off in fifty years, Sinjen Carlyle decides to take his friends, Miriam, Jack and the fair Carlotta out to enjoy a murder mystery play. It’s to be set over a week, at a castle in the Scottish Highlands. Their hosts, an eccentric mystery writer and his charming wife. Before they have even made it to their rooms, he begins to suspect that he and Carlotta may not be the only two vampires there. As a snowstorm rolls in, and the play begins to blend fantasy a little too closely to reality, could there be a more sinister cause? And, with three vampires penned into on building, can they solve the play, and manage their appetites, before a real death takes place?

Genres: Fiction, Idle Hands Series, Paranormal, Standalone, Supernatural, Vampires
209 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 26, 2023

ABOUT MICHAEL B CHIKONDI (from Amazon)

Michael B. Chikondi is not to be trusted, but the creature agrees to a meeting in its burrow. We enter with trepidation, given that the thing has no doorbell. As we crawl through the narrow tunnel, gored out by its own teeth, by the texture, we hear what can only be described as a hacking cough.

“Can we approach?” we call.

“No soliciting.” the voice returns.

“You sent for us; you told us to ask you questions. You know, for promotional reasons.”

“Ask.” the dread voice responds.

“Alright, who are you?” we try.

“A creature of mist and shadow, half-mad, I used to go out, I did, and know those…humans. Not now, not since…the pen.”

“You found a pen? That’s why you became a writer?” we ask, now terrified, trying to gauge how fast we can leave the burrow. The photographer has already left us, chewing off his own watch, caught on a tree root.

“Yes, but now…I hunger…”

We are not proud; we turn tail and flee, before it can leave its den. We aren’t paid enough to get a full bio. We can only pray someone buys its books, so that the thing never comes out on its own.

Ed. What the hell is this? This isn’t what we requested. Just some nonsense and an artist’s rendition of what one of my people saw before he contracted rabies? Eh, whatever. Plenty more writers in the sea.