Code Blood - Kurt Kamm (GIVEAWAY!)
4 Stars!
ABOUT THE BOOK -
Colt Lewis, a rookie fire paramedic, is obsessed with finding the severed foot of his first victim after she dies in his arms. His search takes him into the connected lives of a graduate research student, with the rarest blood in the world and the vampire fetishist who is stalking her. Within the corridors of high-stakes medical research laboratories, the shadow world of body parts dealers, and the underground Goth clubs of Los Angeles, Lewis uncovers a tangled maze of needles, drugs and maniacal ritual, all of which lead to death. But whose death? An unusual and fast-paced LA Noir thriller.Book Details:
Genre: Suspense, Vampire
Published by: MCM Publishing
Publication Date: October 2012
Number of Pages: 233
ISBN: 0979855136 (ISBN13: 9780979855139)
Series: Code Blood is a Stand Alone Novel
Purchase Links: Amazon
Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Code Blood Literary Awards:
- Writer’s Type - First Chapter Competition. January 2011- First Place
- 2012 International Book Awards - Fiction: Cross Genre Category – First Place
- National Indie Excellence Book Awards – Faction (fiction based on fact) - Winner of the 2012 Award
- The 2012 USA Best Book Awards - Fiction: Horror - Winner
- LuckyCinda Publishing Contest 2013 First Place – Thriller
- Reader's Favorite 2013– Finalist – Horror Fiction
- Knoxville Writer’s Guild - 2011 Novella or Novel Excerpt – 2nd Place
Read an excerpt:
Colt heard a small chopper. It sounded like a lawnmower. He knew it couldn’t be the AirSquad and looked up. A news helicopter circled overhead. He saw another coming up the coast from Los Angeles. In minutes, news crews in vans would arrive, extend their satellite transmission poles, broadcast pictures of the accident and fan out to find people to interview. In the process, several spectators would have a moment of fame on Los Angeles network television. The accident would be a good lead-in on the 11:00 p.m. Sunday night news, but the anchors would be disappointed that a Malibu celebrity wasn’t involved.
Moose joined them with the backboard and laid it down next to the girl’s body.
Brian checked the C-spine. “Ready guys? On my count.”
The men prepared to roll the girl on her side.
“Be careful,” Colt said.
Brian gave Colt a quick look and said, “One, two, three.”
In unison, they rolled her onto her side, Moose pushed the board in toward her and the men laid her back onto it.
Colt thought he heard her utter a faint moan. While Brian secured the head brace and straps across her body and prepared her for transport across the beach, he looked at her bloodied leg again. “Where’s the foot?” he shouted. “Does someone have her foot?” She still wore one delicate leather sandal.
“We can’t find the sucker,” one of the deputies told Colt.
“Can’t find it? How’s that possible?” Colt said. The girl needed her foot. They had to ice it down before the tissue started to die. It might be reattached. “It has to be here somewhere.” He went over to the damaged pickup.
The driver of the truck sat with his head down, behind the metal screen in the back seat of a black and white. A sheriff’s deputy stood outside, questioning him through the window and writing on his notepad. Colt interrupted. “Where’s the foot?” He was met with a shrug and a blank stare from the deputy. Colt looked at the driver of the pickup, a man about his own age, and hated him.
Colt walked around the pickup. Glass shards from a headlight and pieces of plastic lay on the ground. He knelt in a pool of green coolant dripping from the smashed radiator and looked under the front of the truck. The foot wasn’t there. He stood up and looked around.
Thirty or forty people stood in the parking lot watching the activity.
Excerpt from Code Blood by Kurt Kamm. Copyright © 2012 by Kurt Kamm. Reproduced with permission from Kurt Kamm. All rights reserved.
Moose joined them with the backboard and laid it down next to the girl’s body.
Brian checked the C-spine. “Ready guys? On my count.”
The men prepared to roll the girl on her side.
“Be careful,” Colt said.
Brian gave Colt a quick look and said, “One, two, three.”
In unison, they rolled her onto her side, Moose pushed the board in toward her and the men laid her back onto it.
Colt thought he heard her utter a faint moan. While Brian secured the head brace and straps across her body and prepared her for transport across the beach, he looked at her bloodied leg again. “Where’s the foot?” he shouted. “Does someone have her foot?” She still wore one delicate leather sandal.
“We can’t find the sucker,” one of the deputies told Colt.
“Can’t find it? How’s that possible?” Colt said. The girl needed her foot. They had to ice it down before the tissue started to die. It might be reattached. “It has to be here somewhere.” He went over to the damaged pickup.
The driver of the truck sat with his head down, behind the metal screen in the back seat of a black and white. A sheriff’s deputy stood outside, questioning him through the window and writing on his notepad. Colt interrupted. “Where’s the foot?” He was met with a shrug and a blank stare from the deputy. Colt looked at the driver of the pickup, a man about his own age, and hated him.
Colt walked around the pickup. Glass shards from a headlight and pieces of plastic lay on the ground. He knelt in a pool of green coolant dripping from the smashed radiator and looked under the front of the truck. The foot wasn’t there. He stood up and looked around.
Thirty or forty people stood in the parking lot watching the activity.
Excerpt from Code Blood by Kurt Kamm. Copyright © 2012 by Kurt Kamm. Reproduced with permission from Kurt Kamm. All rights reserved.
Malibu, California resident Kurt Kamm has written a series of firefighter mystery novels which have won several literary awards. He is also the author of The Lizard’s Tale, which provides a unique look inside the activities of the Mexican drug cartels and the men dedicated to stopping them. Kurt has used his contacts with several California fire departments, as well as with the ATF and DEA to write fact-based (“faction”) novels. In his chilling and suspenseful multi-award winning novel, Code Blood, Kurt takes the reader into the connected lives of a fire paramedic, a Chinese research student with the rarest blood type in the world, and the blood-obsessed killer who stalks her. Colt Lewis, a young Los Angeles County fire paramedic responds to a fatal accident. The victim dies in his arms. Her foot has been severed but is nowhere to be found. Who is the woman, and what happened to her foot? During a weeklong search, Colt risks his career to find the victim’s identity and her missing foot. His search leads him to a dark and disturbing side of Los Angeles…an underworld of body part dealers and underground Goth clubs. He uncovers a tangled maze of drugs, needles, and rituals. Emergency medicine, high-tech medical research, and the unsettling world of blood fetishism and body parts make for an edgy L.A. Noir thriller. Kurt has built an avid fan base among first responders and other readers. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School, Kurt was previously a financial executive and semi-professional bicycle racer. He was also Chairman of the UCLA/Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Foundation for several years.
Visit his author website at kurtkamm.com & on Facebook!
MY THOUGHTS -
Creepy fun book! An Albino who likes to think of himself as a Vampire and hangs out with other creepy Vampire wanna-Be's. I don't know why anyone would want to pretend they are a vampire to the point of actually drinking blood is beyond me but I do know this is a real thing! Just plain weird!
Great character development. Colt, the good guy, a paramedic is kind of strange at times and gets way too involved in the "missing foot case", but he is genuine and sweet and very likeable. I would like to read more books about him.
Markus, the "Vampire" - holy creepiness! This guy is strange to the max. But I have to say it was fun reading about him and his parts were my favorite parts. What does that say about my reading habits? LOL
Great ending! This book just got creepier and creepier and therefore better and better in my opinion right up to the fun, graphic end.
Kurt Kamm is a new author for me but I would definitely read another one by him. Especially if any of his books are like this.
*This book does have quite a bit of swearing and graphic details - but this just makes it more real to me.
I voluntarily posted this review after receiving a copy of this book from Partners in Crime Tours - Thank You!
I too enjoyed this book and want to read more from this author.
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