The Last Vampire by Patricia Rosemoor & Marc Paoletti

Review by Vicky London

The Last Vampire is the collaboration of two authors, Patricia Rosemoor and Marc Paoletti and is book one of the Annals of Alchemy and Blood. Leah Maguire is an anthropologist and an expert in rituals of the past. Being a survivor of a vampire attack, she attempts to help others deal with their traumas through mystical rituals of their culture. While on a job in New Mexico she is pressed into service by the military to assist them in tracking down an escaped vampire on the streets of New Orleans.

Captain Scott Boulder is the leader of a deep black ops unit comprised of specially enhanced soldiers. They have gained their powers through the DNA of a 500 hundred year old mummy found in a remote Texas cave. The mummy has now been brought back to life by a voodoo priestess who seeks to harness his life giving powers. This is no ordinary mummy, he is a vampire that has survived since the Spanish inquisition and has fought for centuries against the Catholic church using the magic of alchemy. Scott and Leah’s job is to destroy the vampire once and for all.

Unfortunately, this book really missed the mark for me. I was never drawn in to actually care about either of these characters. Scott is especially unsympathetic. There’s nothing very interesting or deep about him despite his tragic childhood. Leah seems a bit dimwitted. She discovers fairly early on that the price of using magic is that she loses more of her final memories of her dead father and brother. She doesn’t decide until nearly the end of the book that maybe she should commit some of these memories to paper or recording until they are mostly gone. I never bought into the romance or attraction between these two characters.

Other parts of the book were also problematic. The alchemy portion of the story was both confusing and boring at the same time. The graphic violence also made this more horror than paranormal romance. This book didn’t keep my attention and I had a difficult time finishing it. I’m not sure if the disconnect has anything to do with having two authors write the book, but I don’t think that I’ll be looking for book two in this series.