Product Description

Genevieve Taylor is a Sidhe, one of the noble fae, and she's unusual, even in present-day London where celebrity vampires, eccentric goblins and scheming lesser fae mix freely with the human population. Genny is a rising star at Spellcrackers.com, where she finds the M' in magic - and that invariably leads to mischief, malice and - too often - murder. Spellcrackers.com is affiliated to the Witch Council, whose ancient tenets prohibit any contact with vampires. Genny also works as a volunteer at a clinic which treats victims of vampire attacks. Then there's her extra-curricular activity, extracting vulnerable fae lured by the local fang gangs. Genny certainly doesn't wants any closer involvement with the vampire community. But when Mr October, one of the hot calendar pin-up vamps, is accused of violently murdering his girlfriend, Genny's called on to repay an old debt and prove his innocence. And that means consorting with some of the sexiest vamps in London! THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD is the first book of SPELLCRACKERS.COM, a sexy, sassy new series guaranteed to spice up your reading life!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41712 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Suzanne Mcleod has been a cocktail waitress, dance group promoter and barmaid at Coventry City Football Club (the last despite having no love for the beautiful game; she had to pay the rent somehow!) After years in retail management, she started writing. THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD, the first of the SPELLCRACKERS.COM series, is her first novel. She lives with her husband and rescue dogs in Bournemouth.

Customer Reviews

Great start for a new urban fantasy series
A very good book that has the potential to become an excellent series. And set in London which instantly gives a few bonus points to British readers of urban fantasy - currently I feel I know Seattle better than London and I lived in London for 18 years!
Great characters, led by Genny, the part sidhe, part other things (so as not to spoil it) and great locations - I loved the fact that Suckertown was really Greenwich. Lots of potential to develop in different directions.
My only debate is that it needs aspects of light to go with the dark - if it is permanent gloom and doom then you have no contrast to compare the terrible things with the good or happy things. In this it reminded me of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series. For that alone I gave it 4*.

The Sweet Scent of Blood
This is an urban fantasy set in London, which makes a nice change. It was the novel setting and the good reviews that pursuaded me to get this book. I was disappointed however.
The main character wasn't likable and her motivations were difficult to understand. Right from the beginning I questioned why Genny would get involved with the murder investigation in the first place given her desire to avoid the attentions of the vampires. This book was impossible to get into, and I gave up on it half way through.

If you're looking for a promising new urban fantasy try Mark of the Demon.

Enjoyable New Series
The Sweet Scent of Blood is about Genny, the only sidhe living in London, who works for Spellcrackers.com cleaning up or `cracking' spells which have been created by various brownies, pixies or other magical creatures and are causing havoc around the city. Like in many urban fantasy novels, this is a world in which the supernatural and magical are part of everyday life. The plot itself focuses on the death of a famous vampire's girlfriend, and Genny's subsequent involvement as she is dragged into the case by various interested parties who believe Melissa's death was caused by magic.

This book is jam-packed with non-stop action and has a large cast of characters from vampires to witches to trolls, and it is probably because of this that the real bad guys are a surprise up until the end. The author has also set up the ground work for characters, relationships and various subplots in this book which look to make for an thrilling new series. The writing style is a little reminiscent of early Anita Blake, especially in Genny's visits to the police station, in which the suspicions of police officers, the Dolph-like character of Hugh and even the characters of the vampires themselves have echoes of early Laurell k. Hamilton. The continuous action, heavy on the police procedural and metaphysical, also reminded me in a good way of Anita Blake at her best, but with the interesting twist of Genny's sidhe magic keeping it fresh and entertaining.

As much as I enjoyed the book overall, a few things did annoy me enough to give it 4 and not 5 stars. Firstly, a lot of the time the writing is a little confusing, making it difficult to understand what's going on at times and why. This is particularly true of Genny's infection with part of the vampire virus, or V3, which we are told about early on in the novel. It is never made exactly clear whether the symptoms she experiences are due to this infection (or in fact precisely how she was infected) or to her own heritage, and everything about her vampiric alter-ego had me utterly baffled. Secondly, the story did lag a bit around the middle with no obvious direction. I also found the heroine's visit to the vampire club a little inconsistent, considering she previously had done everything she could to avoid all vampires and that her sidhe blood was irresistible to them, not to mention her reasons for going were pretty flimsy.

Despite these problems The Sweet Scent of Blood is a quality addition to urban fantasy, and one I found enjoyable to read. It has a little bit of romance, with a promise of more in the next book, lots of magic and mystery and an exciting new heroine. I would recommend it to any fans of the genre as the beginning of what looks to be a great series, and I will definitely be looking out for the next instalment.