Rating: 
Summary: Unusual sleuth
Review: After moving to a small English village, novelist Simon Kirby-Jones is asked to join the Church Restoration Fund Committee. During the committee meeting he discovers that there are disturbing undercurrents and rumors of a tell-all play. When the author of the play, Abigail Winterton, is found strangled he decides to investigate. I thought this was a charming novel with a good solid mystery to back it up. Simon is one of the most original characters to hit the mystery scene. He is witty, clever and debonair, and oh yes...he is a vampire. The only unbelievable part of this book was that he met not one but three gorgeous, single available men within days of moving to Snupperton:)
Rating:
Summary: Unusual sleuth
Review: After moving to a small English village, novelist Simon Kirby-Jones is asked to join the Church Restoration Fund Committee. During the committee meeting he discovers that there are disturbing undercurrents and rumors of a tell-all play. When the author of the play, Abigail Winterton, is found strangled he decides to investigate. I thought this was a charming novel with a good solid mystery to back it up. Simon is one of the most original characters to hit the mystery scene. He is witty, clever and debonair, and oh yes...he is a vampire. The only unbelievable part of this book was that he met not one but three gorgeous, single available men within days of moving to Snupperton:)
Rating:
Summary: A Nearly Traditional Cozy Mystery With An Original Twist
Review: Dame Agatha would have been right at home in the quaint but cozy English village of Snupperton Mumsley, but I don't know how she would have reacted to the village's latest resident, Simon Kirby-Jones. You see he's a little different. He's an American, but not your typical "ugly" American. He's a delightful Southern gentleman and renowned historian and biographer, who actually earns his keep by secretly churning out historical romances as Daphne Deepwood and hard-boiled female P.I. adventures as Dorinda Darington. He's also gay, and to complicate matters even more, he just happens to be a vampire. Actually, he's far removed from the cliché "I vant to bite your neck" vampires of the typical horror film. It seems that medical science has finally discovered a cure for vampirism. It's a wonder drug that while it doesn't bring you back to life it does eliminate the rather unsavory aspects of being a vampire - the bloodsucking and becoming a crispy critter when exposed to sunlight. The only real drawback with the drug is the fact that drinking a cup of tea laced with garlic will usually prove fatal. And in this charming English village, that's a real possibility. That's because all the inhabitants of Snupperton Mumsley have guilty little secrets. So when the village snoop and postmistress reveals that she has a play for the village church restoration affair that will reveal all the hidden secrets of the villagers, it comes as no surprise when she is discovered murdered. That's when Simon decides to use his vampire capabilities and mystery writing skills to solve the murder. That is if the murderer doesn't discover his hidden little secret. Simon Kirby-Jones is a refreshing twist to the traditional English cozy, cup-of-tea murder mystery sleuth. Dean James has created a witty and totally original concept for a mystery series. I found it totally enjoyable, and since I do believe in vampires and things that go bump in the night I'm looking forward to Simon's next odyssey in Snupperton Mumsley.
Rating: 
Summary: Hopefully the beginning of a new vampire series
Review: Dr. Simon Kirby-Jones is a historian who also writes mysteries and romances. He is also a vampire. Thanks to the miracles of modern science, he takes two pills a day and can live pretty much like the average person. Only garlic can kill him. He is given a cottage in England by a former lover and moves from Texas to rural England. When he arrives he is surprized to meet a fellow vampire Jane Hardwick in the area. Tristan never mentioned her. When the local busybody postmistress is murdered, Simon and Jane team up to find the murderer. I really enjoyed this novel. The author does beat the reader over the head a little too much with the main character's homosexuality, but it doesn't distract too much from the story, which should appeal to mainstream audiences. I certainly enjoyed it. I didn't even suspect the eventual murderer, and the characters are very well drawn and funny. The author has a lot to develop in future novels, and I hope to read one soon.
Rating:
Summary: Hopefully the beginning of a new vampire series
Review: Dr. Simon Kirby-Jones is a historian who also writes mysteries and romances. He is also a vampire. Thanks to the miracles of modern science, he takes two pills a day and can live pretty much like the average person. Only garlic can kill him. He is given a cottage in England by a former lover and moves from Texas to rural England. When he arrives he is surprized to meet a fellow vampire Jane Hardwick in the area. Tristan never mentioned her. When the local busybody postmistress is murdered, Simon and Jane team up to find the murderer. I really enjoyed this novel. The author does beat the reader over the head a little too much with the main character's homosexuality, but it doesn't distract too much from the story, which should appeal to mainstream audiences. I certainly enjoyed it. I didn't even suspect the eventual murderer, and the characters are very well drawn and funny. The author has a lot to develop in future novels, and I hope to read one soon.
Rating:
Summary: A clever cozy with a little bite
Review: Dr. Simon Kirby-Jones, an American recently moved to the quaint English village of Snupperton Mumsley, is a man of many secrets. A successful author of respected histories, Simon also churns out best-selling historical romances and a popular series of mysteries, which he publishes pseudonymously. He is also gay, which, if not exactly a secret, is a piece of information he imagines would alarm the straight-laced but nonetheless dishy local vicar. Most interesting, however, is the fact that everything Simon does, from cranking out genre fiction to mooning over married clerics, he does posthumously: young Dr. Kirby-Jones, as it happens, is a vampire.
It being wise for vampires to cultivate good relations with their neighbors, Simon immerses himself upon his arrival in Snupperton Mumsley in various local civic projects. He joins the Church Restoration Fund Committee, for example, and becomes interested in the Snupperton Mumsley Amateur Dramatic Society's rancorous debate over the selection of a new play. These activities allow Simon to become acquainted with the village's more civic-minded residents--the snobbish aristocrat Lady Prunella Blitherington (nee Ragsbottom), for example, the Miss Marple-ish Jane Hardwick, the poorly coiffed and abrasive postmistress Abigail Winterton.
It is less difficult than one might suppose for Simon to blend in with the locals, as medical advances have, in his world, taken the bite out of vampirism. The pills Simon takes twice daily mean that he needn't avoid sunlight--though he is careful to wear sunglasses--or suck the blood of unwilling donors for his daily sustenance. As a newly minted vampire, Simon has in fact never had to engage in traditional vampire activities, and he finds the whole blood-sucking, burying-oneself-in-cemeteries business a bit disgusting. Indeed, apart from a few small differences, Simon is indistinguishable from humans: his hearing is inhumanly acute, he cannot ingest garlic and live to tell about it, he can get by on very little sleep. The last of these is a boon as far as literary productivity goes, and it comes in handy as well when Simon turns to late-night sleuthing after a Snupperton Mumsley-ite is murdered.
Dean James' first Simon Kirby-Jones mystery is a delightful romp of a novel, but it is a disappointment that the author has elected to effectively defang his protagonist. The book would have been much more fun if Simon had had to satisfy his vampiric appetites at least occasionally, fussily wiping the blood from his lips, perhaps, as he returns after the hunt to the drawing rooms of polite society. As it is, Simon's interests are informed less by his vampirism than by the more mundane fact of his homosexuality. Nonetheless, James' clever cozy is definitely worth a read.
Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
Rating: 
Summary: Derivative Nonsense
Review: Hard to know where to start when it comes to my disdain for this book. The fact that it has vampire protagonist and that fact has no bearing on the plot at all.Through a plot contrivance that is so ridiculous and manufactured it has new car smell all over it. The fact that said protagonist is gay and leers after every man in the small village of Snapperton Mumsley. Oh by the way there are no ugly men in Snapperton Mumsley. Just men with delicious musculatures and soulful eyes. The horrible mixing of the protagonist being American from Mississippi but being more British than the queen. The author is a bookstore owner and probably fancies himself a mystery historian thus the book has numerous out-of-place insider jokes, yawn. This book is a cynical mixing of genres that sell, vampires, british cozies,and mystery insiders. It is poorly executed and too clever by half. The only reason he has written a vampire protaginist is so he can indulge in sophmoric puns about being alive and dead at the same time, yadda, yadda, yadda. The fact that Mr. James is a bookstore owner only makes me wonder how this gets printed in hardcover while Charlaine Harris' superior vampire novels are still paperback originals. If you're looking for a vampire novel or a british cozy or a novel about writing mystery novels run away from this and pick up almost anything else on the shelf you'll be doing yourself a favor.
Rating:
Summary: Great beginning to new mystery series!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I've only read a few "cozy" mysteries (Dorothy Cannell's) but this book has made me want to read more. Simon Kirby Jones is a writer of historical nonfiction from Texas who moves to a small village in England as he is a true Angiophile and has always wanted to live in England. He is also a vampire. And he is also gay. He also writes mysteries and romance under two different pseudonyms. Sounds far fetched, but it was really a fun read full of quirky characters all of whom it seems had a reason to want the local postmistress dead. Since Simon was a vampire, I would like to have seen more evidence of his vampirism (is that a word)? But that's a very minor quibble in a very enjoyable read. I didn't figure out who the murderer was until right at the end and thought the author wrapped everything up very nicely. I really did like Simon and look forward to reading FAKED TO DEATH the next in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Bored to Death
Review: It's hard to believe the other reviews here are for the book I read. The hero is smug and pretentious; the "vampirism" here is reduced from moral drama to the equivalent of a really good fitness routine (payoffs -- increased attractiveness and longevity, downsides -- well, none, really); the characters have the depth (but not the appeal) of graham crackers; the stereotypical British-isms are painful; the plot is so bad it should be staked through the heart... in short, the book *I* read was unrelievedly awful. If you like Sarah Caudwell or Laurell Hamilton, or if you value vivid characterizations, strong plotting and sharp dialog, avoid this book.
Rating:
Summary: Bored to Death
Review: It's hard to believe the other reviews here are for the book I read. The hero is smug and pretentious; the "vampirism" here is reduced from moral drama to the equivalent of a really good fitness routine (payoffs -- increased attractiveness and longevity, downsides -- well, none, really); the characters have the depth (but not the appeal) of graham crackers; the stereotypical British-isms are painful; the plot is so bad it should be staked through the heart... in short, the book *I* read was unrelievedly awful. If you like Sarah Caudwell or Laurell Hamilton, or if you value vivid characterizations, strong plotting and sharp dialog, avoid this book.
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