"SHADOW IMAGE is a fantastic vampire romance."

Shadow Bay is a small, peaceful town in Michigan where murder is not supposed to happen, but still, Sheriff Shelby Cort examines a body discovered in an old privy hole. Meeting her at the crime scene is the new county medical examiner Ricardo "Ric" De Chaux. He immediately finds blunt force trauma on the back of the victim's head but when he does a thorough autopsy, he finds that the victim is drained of blood.

Ric is the new Overlord of the local vampire community consisting of six other creatures of the night. He has to figure out if one of them got too careless or if this was the work of a rogue. While trying to assert his authority over the group Ric also has to make sure that the beautiful sheriff is kept in the dark about the possible existence of vampires. While Ric and Shelby work close together they begin an intimate relationship, one that might not last when she discovers her lover is one of the undead and didn't tell her.

The undead society in Jaye Roycraft's vampire series is a paradoxical one because they look at humans with contempt yet they live among mortals in secret. The hero of this book changes from despising humans to loving one of them so much he is willing to end his existence for her. SHADOW IMAGE is a fantastic vampire romance.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 11, 2002

Summary

Shelby Cort has had enough of working for a big-city police department. Ricard De Chaux, the notorious le docteur la mort and ex-Paramount for the Undead in France, has been escaping for years and now reluctantly works his way back into human society. They meet in the small town of Shadow Bay, Michigan—Shelby as Sheriff and Ric as the new county medical examiner.

When dead bodies start to pop up in unlikely places and the killings go unsolved, Shelby comes under attack from town officials, the media, and her own co-workers. She finds an ally in the new ME, both grateful for his support and drawn by his exotic good looks.

But what Shelby doesn't know is that the killer isn't human. What she also doesn't know is that the cool, collected Dr. De Chaux is by night Doctor Death, the new Overlord of the local Undead, whose top priority is to protect his new charges. Doctor Death hides one piece of evidence after another from the Sheriff, as all the while Ric fills Shelby's off-duty time with longing and passion.

When the killer goes after Shelby and all Ric's secrets are on the line, where will his allegiance fall?