{"id":181,"date":"2012-01-02T19:17:02","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T01:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=181"},"modified":"2012-01-02T19:17:02","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T01:17:02","slug":"sarah-zettel-a-taste-of-the-nightlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/sarah-zettel-a-taste-of-the-nightlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Zettel: A Taste of the Nightlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sarah Zettel, a prolific writer of science fiction under various pseudonyms, is obviously comfortable creating an entire alternate world for her story and characters. A Taste of the Nightlife<\/em> is subtitled \u201cA Vampire Chef Mystery\u201d, and no, the chef is not a vampire, but she\u2019s surrounded by them. The chef in question, Charlotte Caine, owns a restaurant called \u201cA Taste of the Nightlife\u201d, that caters to all kinds of folk, vampires, werewolves, witches, etc. Vampires are the main focus, though there\u2019s also a werewolf involved, and a werewolf works as Charlotte\u2019s sous chef \u2013 she tells him on the way home \u201chello to the cubs\u201d.<\/p>\n

Charlotte\u2019s brother, Chet, is also a vampire, a fact that\u2019s estranged him from the rest of the family, though he\u2019s Charlotte\u2019s business partner. Nightlife serves blood of all sorts, mainly ox, along with a more human slanted menu. In the opening scene the restaurant is in an uproar because they\u2019ve been visited by a prominent critic (and vampire) Anatole Sevarin, and there\u2019s a loud complainer in the front causing a commotion and demanding to speak to the chef, as well as a replacement of her soup. From there things go all to heck.<\/p>\n

The strongest part of the book is the fact that Zettel has created a thoroughly believable alternate world \u2013 full of phrases like \u201cbite-easy\u201d (think about it), \u201cnightbloods\u201d, \u201cdaybloods\u201d, worrying about using garlic in her food when a \u201cvamp\u201d visits her at home, or the idea that using the word \u201cDracula\u201d is an insult to a vampire. It\u2019s so complete it\u2019s impressive. She\u2019s also grounded her story in our actual reality by having Charlotte being a normal, harried, hard working woman who frequently cooks with food we all recognize – while the warm drink of blood she offers one of the characters is a bit stomach churning – the omlettes and smoothies she describes sound comfortably human.<\/p>\n

Charlotte and her brother Chet have a slightly fraught relationship for reasons that are (mostly) all too human. Zettel is also very good with relationships – Charlotte\u2019s and Chet\u2019s, Charlotte\u2019s and Anatole\u2019s, and Charlotte\u2019s with another character named Brendan. There\u2019s also a nice, funny mani-pedi scene with one of Charlotte\u2019s roommates. That said, the mystery part is probably the weakest link, as it meanders a tiny bit and there\u2019s some developments that are complicated by the involvement of too many characters.<\/p>\n

However, this is a light, frequently funny, and intelligently written book. The next book in the series, Let Them Eat Stake<\/em>, is scheduled for 2012 and I\u2019m already looking forward to it. Charlotte Caine is well worth another visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Zettel, a prolific writer of science fiction under various pseudonyms, is obviously comfortable creating an entire alternate world for her story and characters. A Taste of the Nightlife is subtitled \u201cA Vampire Chef Mystery\u201d, and no, the chef is not a vampire, but she\u2019s surrounded by them. The chef in question, Charlotte Caine, owns … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-americancozy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}