CS Winchester‘s Past Due is a romantic, urban-fantasy mystery placed in London. In it we find a major component of the paranormal and magical. Our main character is Frankie (Francis Wright), the psychic, who is supported by Alex (Alexander McNabb), the vampire.
Two killings bring them together, and the two of them end up working to solve the mystery of what seems to be serial killings with magical components. Frankie is part of MI5 (they control the paranormal population). Alex is not. He happens to own a nightclub. However unlikely it might seem that these two should work together to solve a crime, they do. In fact, the two of them end up becoming more involved in each other’s lives than they had originally thought.
The world of Past Due seems to be a man’s world. Except for a phone conversation with her mother, Frankie is the only woman we get to meet (other than the corpses). Her mother provides the comic relief of the story with what I presume is a common mother/daughter phone call:
… “Well you know, even large age gaps can be overcome. Felicity, from my bridge group, married a man thirty years her senior. Of course he was loaded, hardly a match made in heaven, but at least her husband died happy.”
“Well, I’ll just pop down to the bingo hall, shall I? See if they have any octogenerians?” …
Some resemblance is purportedly found between Frankie and CS Winchester (VLA). What do I know about Frankie? She is adopted, psychic (reacts to touch), in her 30’s, works for the paranormal police, wonders if a relationship with a vampire is doable, is independent, has a mother who does not believe that Frankie is psychic, has been thought insane and cares for the victims of her cases. When the vampires try to bully her into doing their will, she stays true to her cause. She and her ex have issues (nothing new there).
I find her believable.
Frankie and we discover fairly early on who the serial killer is. We get some information on him, enough for him to fit with profiles of serial killers. Even the magic element is something some killers would believe they use. I wonder what made our murderer actually step over the killing line?
I find him believable as well.
Past Due was an easy-on-the-brain type of read. I liked it.
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humanitysdarkerside 
There seems to be a lot of popular literature dealing with vampires. Wondering what your take on that is.
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I have been wondering that too.
Perhaps it has to do with a fear of death – most vampires live a loooong time. It might also have something to do with our monsters inside. Very few (if any) vampires are cuddly teddy bears. There is usually a killer (sometimes of the horror kind) inside.
I don’t know how long vampire stories have existed. My guess is a very long time. Back in the days (and in places without electricity) there was a need to somehow push the dark away, make it something we could understand. People died and we couldn’t figure out why. Hence all of the supernatural and paranormal creatures.
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