James, Dean: Faked to Death

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The second installment in author Dean James' charming series of vampire cozies finds undead amateur sleuth Simon Kirby-Jones at a writers' conference hosted by local aristocrat Lady Hermione Kinsale. Simon's host and the clutch of other writers at the conference know him as the author of two highly respected biographies, but Simon also publishes novels pseudonymously, including a bestselling series of mysteries under the name Dorinda Darlington. The fun starts when a woman claiming to be Dorinda shows up at the conference and sets about infuriating her "colleagues." A corpse or two later, Simon is back to putting his vampiric attributes--acute hearing, the ability to sense when people are lying--to good use, helping the local constabulary solve a double murder.

The toothsome Watson to Simon's toothy Sherlock is Sir Giles Blitherington, the young lord Simon hired as an assistant in the first Kirby-Jones mystery, shortly after he moved to the quaint village of Snupperton Mumsley. In Faked to Death Simon is still warding off Giles' incessant but not wholly unwelcome advances. He is also still remembering to take twice daily the pills that, in this modern age, allow vampires to live like mortals, gadding about in the sunlight and eschewing the drinking of blood.

Perhaps perversely, I'm hoping Simon will forget his medication one day: I'd like to see how the polite society of Snupperton Mumsley would react should Simon start showing his fangs. I'm also hoping Dean Jones will continue chronicling Simon's exploits for a long time to come.