The Nymphos Of Rocky Flats (2015) - Plot & Excerpts
Felix Gomez is a former soldier, a vampire and he is guilt ridden. He's also a man with convictions, and a hot private detective. Felix is called on by an old friend to figure out why several women who work for the U.S. Department of Energy suddenly came down with a case of nymphomania that cost them their families, their lives and possibly their jobs. Hey, too much sex is not always a good thing people. Felix, despite my first impression from the cover, is not a greaser, and does not take advantage of women. Actually, he's one of the good guys, among humans and vampires.I had to sneak a peak at a few reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble before I wrote this blog post to get a feel for what people were saying. I can tell you this: IF you expect Nymphos of Rocky Flats to be a paranormal romance, an Anita Blake book spin-off, or an erotic supernatural tale of lusty sex, you will be disappointed. However, I'm not sure that anyone who actually reads the summaries provided would be led to these conclusions. We could ask Mr. Acevedo, he might agree to whip up a quick erotic short featuring Felix. I'm just saying...Seriously though, the Felix Gomez books are part urban fantasy, part detective/mystery with a little conspiracy suspense thrown in for good measure. The author doesn't waste time with lavish descriptions, or complex character profiles. Felix is a straight forward guy, a former soldier who lives his life day to day, bending the "rules" of the vamp world to his lifestyle. He doesn't want to play with others; he just wants to do his job and get paid. Sometimes life doesn't give us what we want though, and he has to face some things on this job that he's been putting off dealing with.I liked The Nymphos of Rocky Flats for it's straight forward "guy" humor, the action and the mystery solving. I've always loved tough PI's in books and television, so it was a fun read for me. I did give a few cringes when the vampires smothered their food in blood, but it added to the gritty feel of Felix's world. The author has a really cool take on vampires that I had to read over twice once I got to the revealing scene. I wanted to grab someone and say "You are NOT going to believe what Felix just did!".If you are a fan of Rob Thurman, Simon Green, Jim Butcher or Anton Strout I think you will really enjoy Mario Acevedo's books. I'm tickled that so many of the Felix Gomez books are already published so I won't have any wait time. The fifth book, Werewolf Smackdown, is coming out this March.
tDisclaimer: Any bad puns you find in this review are entirely intentional. :-) .... We now return you to our regularly scheduled program....This book contains a few of my favorite things (ques up Sound of Music track): Action, Conspiracy Theory and Vampires (oh my). The style is light "tongue and cheek" and flows well on one level. On a deeper level, as sci-fi/fantasy, it does a good job of tying together Aliens, Conspiracy Theories and Vampires (Who knew they were related?). ...more Disclaimer: Any bad puns you find in this review are entirely intentional. :-) .... We now return you to our regularly scheduled program....This book contains a few of my favorite things (ques up Sound of Music track): Action, Conspiracy Theory and Vampires (oh my). The style is light "tongue and cheek" and flows well on one level. On a deeper level, as sci-fi/fantasy, it does a good job of tying together Aliens, Conspiracy Theories and Vampires (Who knew they were related?).Felix Gomez is an ex-soldier, now PI, who also happens to be a modern day vampire (who thinks drinking blood from the living, leaves a bad taste in his mouth). He is asked to go to Rocky Flats by an old friend and takes on a case to investigate mass nymphomania reports.If your not familiar with Acevedo's work, at first it seems like a lot of random elements thrown together. But like any good mystery, the pieces start falling together later. Acevedo keeps the action moving and sprinkles in a bit of humor. If your looking for a serious or deeper read, then you need to look somewhere else. (i.e.: In the interest of keeping things moving, Acevedo skimps on some details that other authors might have taken time to flesh out.)For the rest of you looking for something fun, fast paced, and mildly thought provoking (Acevedo does this neat thing with Chi and explains some things we generally take for granted in a creative way), this might be it.This is not your typical teen vampire romance/love story that is the popular mainstream fad these days. It's a fast paced, sexy, romp through the eyes of a vampire PI. Will Acevedo be remembered with the likes of Shakespeare, Hemingway or Lovecraft? Not with this series.But the read is still fun.
What do You think about The Nymphos Of Rocky Flats (2015)?
Ah, what a crazy book to have read! It was fun, though. Not my typical pick to read but it takes place down the highway from my house so I had to read it.Rocky Flats is gone now, there's just a highly contaminated site where the weapons plant once stood. This story takes place at the time of the decommissioning about a decade ago.There's a vampire who is also a veteran and private investigator, aliens (!), nymphomaniacs (!), and evil Ukrainian vampire hunters. The story could have actually done without the nymphos but I suppose it was all part of the craziness. My serious nature being what it is, I could have read this book with just the vampire driving around in his 1962 Polara doing PI stuff and been quite happy. (It's hard to take this book seriously!)Here's a few fun quotes from a local's perspective:"I was driving my '62 Dodge Polara north on Highway 93. . . .Past the intersection with Highway 72, I turned right at the first traffic light. . . ." (Now there's a snap shot of my morning commute.)"Jenny Calhoun lived in Arvada, a bedroom suburb right smack in the center of the radioactive smoke plume should Rocky Flats catch fire, like it has twice before." (I was planning on calling in sick when they did the controlled burn this summer on the former site, but due to negative public reaction, they've canceled it.)Here's the old view of the site, now gone.And here's 93 and 72 for all those interested.
—Sara
I'm not a fan of series, I don't care for "paranormal" genre, detective fiction and I'm not crazy about vampires, but this book, the whole series actually, was recommended to me, so I thought I'd check it out. As I expected a quick decent read, if I were into the things mentioned in the first sentence of this review, I'd probably love it. I will say that the writing was solid, the pace was good and the characters compelling and interesting enough to warranty me checking out the rest of the series sometime. I'd like to read Zombie Jailbait, but don't want to do it out of order. I have to say, though, this book was not as funny as most reviews have led me to believe, it wasn't really funny at all IMO, just entertaining and a quick read.
—Bandit
I was intrigued with the premise of this book: a soldier gets turned into a vampire and then comes back as a private detective who is now investigating a case of nymphomania.This premise is interesting, but I feel the book fails to deliver a whole package. Acevedo's descriptions are weak, and at no point did I feel myself drawn into the story, like I was feeling what it was like to be a vampire detective. The narrator was very nonchalant about his powers and there was little, if any, description about the way his vampire powers felt to him. He just says things like "I used my vampire power to hypnotise them." Very plain, not visceral at all. Lots of telling without showing.Despite the sensory deprivation of the narrative, Acevedo does add some interesting new twists on the vampire legend. Now vampires can turn into wolves, hypnotize, hover, wear sunblock, and cause memory loss in people. At the same time, some of these new powers made the narrator's quest a bit too easy at times. Need to get out of a jam? Make them lose their memory!Aside from having vampires and vampire hunters, this is a standard mystery novel. Given, the plotline is funny it involves government conspiracies and nyphomania, but it offers nothing new from your typical dime-a-dozen mainstream mystery plotline. The ending comes as no surprise.In summary:With more sensory details and concentration on making characters come alive (instead of flimsy plot devices) this could have been a better story. As is, it's your standard mystery with two-dimensional vampires as characters that never strike home
—Paul Eckert
