The Winter Man
Review by Baron Gideon Redoak, submitted on 06-Jan-1996

_The Winter Man_, by Denise Vitola. NY, Berkeley, 1995. ISBN: 0-425-15055-0

It is the worst winter on record in Washington DC and a killer is loose. Trouble is, she's the heroine. *grin*.

Nicki Chim is a forensic hematologist with the Coroner's Office, and she was a unique way of testing the blood of murder victims--she drinks it. Yep, she's a vampire, or a hematoman as she prefers to call her condition. "Hemotoma" means "to swell with blood", so you can figure out the rest.

Although I read the book fairly quickly, and the story (the pursuit of the identity of a serial killer who has a very quirky signature, and I won't say anything more because that will ruin the suspense) is not bad, I am still not entirely sure that I _like_ Nicki. She's a slightly different type of vampire, well most are, and she feels no remorse over a kill or over dominating not only humans but other vampires. She also has a serious gambling addiction, which is mildy amusing. She's a clan leader--clans being small family groups of vampires lead by a strong-willed one one. This is her word for these groups, so please don't yell at me about copyright of V:tM or that this isn't _their_ definition of a vampire clan. I called such a grouping a "court" myself...

Anyway, the mystery of the Winter Man is not the only plotline in the book, we also have Nicki's troubles with her clan and her own gambling problem, so it's a fairly absorbing read. It is nice to have another strong female vampire enter the ranks--I smell a series.

For fans of the vampire detective genre, or those who like their vampires as unremorseful killers. (One does wonder, in the end, how much difference there is between Nicki and the serial killer she stalks...).