Summary

Four bodies have been discovered along Europe’s riverbanks, placed with care – and completely drained of blood. Pinpricks on their throats indicate a slender murder weapon, but DNA found in the wounds suggests something far more sinister. Tasked with investigating, the FBI recruits Agents Della Hamilton and Mason Carter to Blackbird, an international offshoot of the Krewe of Hunters. If you want to catch a vampire killer, you need agents who can speak with the dead. 

The pair travel to Norway, where the shadowy forests of Lillehammer reveal a gruesome scene. The killer is thirsty for more victims, and the bloodless trail soon leads Della and Mason to a group that believes drinking blood is the key to immortality. To catch the culprit of such an intimate crime, the agents will have to get close. Mason’s already lost one partner, he’s not ready to risk Della as bait. But sometimes justice requires a sacrifice…

Why I chose to read this book
After finishing Danger in Numbers and Crimson Summer by Heather Graham, I was looking forward to trying out another one of her series. Whispers at Dusk is the first in the Blackbird Trilogy and is my first foray into the paranormal genre!

Thoughts & Opinions

Right at the beginning of this book, before the prologue starts, there is a cast of characters, where each character is described. I found it funny because some characters are described in detail such as age, height, hair color and so on, and others are summarized with simply “Scottish detective”. I’m not entirely sure why the cast list was necessary, seems like the author could have kept that for their personal notes. 

After reading the summary, I decided to go in with an open mind, and the ghosts didn’t end up bothering me, it was easy to accept them as part of the story. 

In Whispers at Dusk, we are introduced to two agents, Mason Carter and Della Hamilton. They both have paranormal abilities and have recently joined a special FBI unit specializing in solving unique crimes. I had the immediate impression that somewhere down the line they would end up in each other’s arms since they are both young, attractive and placed in high adrenaline situations together. 

Mason, although perceived as confident by Della, comes off as hesitant and insecure at times but arrogant in other situations. I noticed he tends to cut off people quite often in dialogue.  He often refers to having lost his previous partner, and this comes up repeatedly throughout the book. It didn’t need to be repeated as often as it did. After a few times it becomes annoying. 

Della, on the other hand, came off as more likeable but seemed to enjoy putting herself up as bait, seemingly having a death wish, much to the disapproval of Mason who, you guessed it, doesn’t want to lose another partner.  

I wasn’t able to connect to Mason and Della and I feel like their characters weren’t as deep as the ones in Danger in Numbers and Crimson Summer. I really liked Special Agent Amy Larson and FBI Agent Hunter Forrest so I might be comparing them to this new “couple” of agents.

There are a few things that bothered me about the writing style. The use of “…” is very prominent and the exclamation points were excessive. This made for choppy dialogue.

Now what bothered me about the story itself; the plausibility or lack thereof. Forgetting the ghosts, I thought that the serial killer they were chasing was not very believable. I do not believe for one second that someone can convince a random person in a bar to go kill someone for them. And be successful at this several times. The timeline between meeting these people and having them commit murders were barely a few days. If it had been carefully thought out and planned over months or years of brainwashing, like in cults, it would have been way more believable.

Another issue I had is that several characters were seemingly major history buffs. Now this isn’t a problem in itself. But to know every historical fact about everywhere you go? And these facts/tidbits that you know off the top of your head help you in your investigation? How convenient. As I was telling my husband how this bothered me, the next page I read explained how the two main characters knew so much about history. One of them was through Google. But still, how did he remember everything and recite everything out perfectly at the opportune occasion and when did he have time to whip out his phone to memorize everything?

Unfortunately, I will not continue with this series as I wasn’t invested enough in the main characters. And finally, although the book itself isn’t very long, it took me a while to read as the length of the chapters was discouraging. 

Check out my other mystery reviews:

Agent Running in the Field

Angels Flight

Autopsy

Eight Perfect Murders

Finlay Donovan is Killing It

The Sorority Murder

Where the Crawdads Sing

White Elephant

Discussion Points

• Have you read this book? If so, what did you think?
• Have you read other series by Heather Graham? How do they compare to this one?
• I’d love to discuss this book with you in the comments below, looking forward to reading you!
• Which book should I review next?