Blood Tally by Brian McClellan

Alek Fitz is back… it’s a couple months after the events of Uncanny Collateral and Ada has another job for her favorite reaper. A thrall has run away from his vampire master. (A thrall is a human who signs a contract of servitude in exchange for eventually turning into a vampire and with it immortality.) The vampire/ client, Boris Novak, is a jerk, big time! But Alek and Maggie, by extension, have to deal with him, as well as a number of other members of the supernatural underground. And as Alek starts to pry open that underground, things get a bit more complicated. Blood goes missing… someone adopts a sphinx… and a double cross may be in the works. (And that’s just in the first third of the book!)

I have to tell you that I am more guilty than most when it comes to continuing on to sequels… I’m a dog distracted by a shinny new first-of-series squirrel. But when I read Uncanny Collateral I knew that I wanted to follow this character. He’s got a voice that’s a bit curmudgeonly, a bit sarcastic, a bit badass, and under it all, he’s a little bit of a softie. And Maggie’s skills of perception give him that edge in the midst of all the nefarious hellions Alek meets up with.  They can be crass and funny, but they always see through people’s BS.

I like how McClellan keeps up with some of the characters we met in the first book, as well as some of the conflicts. For example, Alek is still trying to find out who his parents are, and things with Maggie’s magician/ archenemy are no where near settled.  But a new mystery and a pointed conspiracy drives this novella. I’m damned glad I backed this Kickstarter.

Check this series out because shit is going down in Cleveland!

My review of Uncanny Collateral (Valkyrie Collections Book 1) by Brian McClellan.

Blood Tally Preorder on McClellan’s website.