“Listen, my child, and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of”–no, no; that’s not it! The way cooler, vampire-related legendary country song by “Slack Whitside, the Singing Switchman,” about the Bolade sisters, Patience and Prudence, as quoted by Alex Bledsoe in his novel The Girls with Games of Blood, goes entirely differently:
Listen to what I tell you, son, every word is true
The sisters haunt the night, and might fight over you
Nothing can steal your soul and stamp it in the mud
Like being the new play-pretty for the girls with the games of blood.
The song is about the two sisters’ undying rivalry that was said to stretch even beyond the grave. Bledsoe’s novel is set in the year 1975 and brought back many (perhaps best forgotten) cultural references to me. Baron Rudolfo (Rudy to his friends) Vladimir Zginski, the main male vampire character so far in the Memphis Vampires series, has never heard the song, but he comes into very intimate contact with both Patience and Prudence in Blood Groove’s sexy and violent sequel, The Girls with Games of Blood. Zginski looks suave and sophisticated (albeit tan-challenged), but he’s a ruthless and selfish monster who always has a motive behind what he does and puts his own desires above those of everyone else.
Besides New World blood, Zginski’s Continental tastes include willing women and high-speed automobiles. These vices, and the fact that he is traveling around the South in the 1970′s with a black man (a vampire called Leonardo who is also in Blood Groove) attract way too much attention. Attention is a thing Zginski can ill afford, and yet, perversely, pursue attention is just what he does. He becomes infatuated with and obsesses about a Ford Mustang he sees in the (original) movie Gone In 60 Seconds, so when the opportunity arises to purchase a similar cherry, 1973 Mach 1 Mustang Zginski jumps at the chance. This puts him on the wrong side of an ex-sheriff who also wanted the car (Cocker’s character, a nod to the actual movie Walking Tall and Sheriff Buford Pusser, is one of the cultural references I mentioned above), who spends the rest of the book trying to get revenge on Zginski and Leonardo.
So, what about the Bolade sisters? What part do they play in the novel’s plot? I have so far focused mostly on Baron Zginski in this review because he is the main recurring character in the series (though Leonardo and Fauvette, a female vampire, are also in both). This novel–which can be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone book–is named after the sisters, and they are important and major characters in it, though they’re not recurring ones to the series.
This novel is a sort of homecoming for Patience, who is returning to her ancestral home near Memphis. She gets hired to perform three nights a week at a bar where Fauvette is the bar maid, and Baron Zginski has used his powers to make the owner, ex-wrestler Gerry Barrister (who is based, I think, on the wrestler Jerry “The King” Lawler) sign over 30% of the bar to him. Patience’s plan to settle back into her home begins to unravel when she learns that her sister Prudence is coming to town…and she has sworn eternal vengeance on her sister Patience.
Alex Beldsoe weaves a tale rich in atmosphere and makes you feel as you read that you are in the South he’s writing about. The characters and their motives seem very real, and though many of them are vampires, Bledsoe makes you empathize with them and like them better than many of the bigoted hate-filled humans in the novel. There’s also enough gore and violence to satisfy the most discriminating lover of vampire stories. I’d heartily recommend The Girls with Games of Blood to anyone who is a fan of the horror genre, and especially fans of vampire literature.
