cover image The Vampire of Venice Beach

The Vampire of Venice Beach

Jennifer Colt, . . Broadway, $11.95 (353pp) ISBN 978-0-7679-2013-1

Harley-riding, red-headed identical twins Terry and Kerry McAffee make their way down the Pacific Coast Highway to Venice Beach in this zany third installment (after 2006's The Mangler of Malibu Canyon ) to Colt's paranormal series, as they track the killer of their friend Darby Applewhite. Posing as Ephemera, Queen of the Undead, for the Coming Out of the Coffin parade, Darby was to make a grand entrance, but her bloodless, lifeless body tumbles from the coffin instead, and later disappears from the morgue. Darby hired the twins for crowd control, and now Darby's parents press Terry and Kerry for help, drawing them deep into an unholy coverup. Colt enlivens the mystery with snarky social commentary on a subplot involving the twins' rich great-aunt Reba and her Venice Beach charity work. The far-out plot features entertaining characters like a really gross vamp named Shatán, but the standouts are the wisecracking sisters on their shocking pink motorcycle. (Mar.)