While I appreciate the concept this author wanted to convey inBlood Secrets, I think the execution was somewhat disjointed, and there were moments between the hero and heroine during which I rolled my eyes in disgust.

The city of Necropolis was created especially for Otherworlders, like vampires, lycans, and witches. When the Others were revealed to the world, there was much distrust, fear, and violence. For their protection (and who “they” are, is never specified by the government) the Powers That Be designated a city where no humans were allowed to go, a city that was not drawn on any map. The average human has no knowledge of Necropoliss existence as it is cleverly disguised as a military installation. The Others have their own police force and their own crime lab. You guessed it, it’s CSI: Necropolis. (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.)

Caine Valorian heads up the Otherworld Crime Unit investigation team. He built the investigation lab with his own considerable resources, and he and his team pride themselves on their abilities. But when a human turns up dead and drained of blood in Necropolis, things get ugly. A human criminalist must be called in to help with the investigation. Eve Grant has been with the San Antonio lab for a mere two years. She’s never been out on a real crime scene investigation until she partners up with Caine and his team. To say they’re a tad hostile toward humans is an understatement, unfortunately we never find out why the particular members of Caine’s team hate humans.

As the investigation progresses right out of a CSI episode, Caine and Eve fight their growing attraction because everyone knows a vampire and human can’t have a real relationship. Eve is completely out of her depth with the supernatural threats, but insists that she’s a valuable asset out in the field. This behavior was clearly TSTL as no one seems to watch out for her and she’s no match for any of the Otherworlders walking around in Necropolis.

The relationship between Caine and Eve isn’t all bad, but at one point Eve’s behavior degenerates into something straight out of high school – and Caine’s isn’t much better. Eve’s character also felt vague to me. She was clearly on the immature side, and I never connected with her motivation or personality. Caine’s character was better defined, but his angst over mistakes which he then repeated over and over grew tiresome. The resolution is quick and unsatisfying, but since this is part of something called The Valorian Chronicles, that might be explored further in future books.

The vampires themselves were also problematic for me. There are some general characteristics that generally define vampires and separate them from humans, but they aren’t so clearly separated here. The phrase that stuck in my mind was “watered down.” I could name specifics, but that would fall into spoiler territory.

To be fair, this isn’t the worst book I’ve read recently, and it moved along quickly, fortunately. There were also some characters I wouldn’t mind seeing again – Jace, the lycan member of the team, for one – but I’m hesitant to pick up another one from this series until I see a trusted recommendation from someone else first.