However, by the second chapter you get into a groove and the story actually unfolds and grips you. It’s strange but even though you know what happens, you find yourself wondering how and why and staying up past your bedtime to read more. To keep things from getting overly dry and clinical, the author throws in lots of local color. The genre, forensic mystery, allows the author to pull from what I can only guess is life experience, making the characters vivid and life-like.

The protagonist is a gifted psychologist, albeit a maverick with her methods, named Kris (call her that since everyone does) Van Zant. Rudd wraps her power-house intellect and powers of observation and deduction in a petite frame. Her stature creates a vulnerability that grounds the character making her more believable. She is predominently spirited and energetic which fuels the story and moves things along quickly. Rudd is careful to add a lot of background material, like personal habits, to round out all of the main characters.

Technically Midnight Red is a vampire story but it’s far from Stoker’s romantic ideal which everyone knows is fiction. Instead, Rudd includes enough authentic sounding psych-oriented aspects to make this almost seem like it could be fact. Sick as the vampire is, he could very well be real given what crazy lunatics are lurking about the evening news these days.

There are some references to the Gothic and Fetish culture that are fairly on target. Perhaps he has an offspring who dabbles in counter-culture. However, this is far from a specifically gothic book. More pop literature than classic fare, this would make a great movie and was a fun read.