Review: Ghosts and Flames

Title: Ghosts and Flames
Author: Kaje Harper
Publisher: MLR Press
Publication Date: 4 November 2011
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 84 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Review: Ben is in Florida after fleeing Nevada and the ghost of his best friend--literally. When said friend guides him into a dive bar, Ben doesn't know what to expect, but it's sure not Talon, the bar's young, lonely owner. Or, for that matter, the vampires out to make the bar their own. With help from Ben and their own private ghosts, will Talon be able to overcome all odds to keep them both safe--and maybe to find out just what he and Ben could have together?

Ben is a fun narrator, remarkably down-to-earth for a man who argues with his dead friend through the medium of lettered scraps of paper. He held a torch for Grant long before Grant died, and is struggling to move past it, not sure he wants to, and not helped by Grant's reappearance as a ghost. He's charmingly dedicated once his mind is made up, whether it's to take Talon up on his generous offer or to risk his life to save them all.

Talon is a bit less well-developed--not surprising given that the story is from Ben's point-of-view. He's a bit hard to grasp, veering between sex kitten and excited kid and resigned businessman, but the overall package is certainly appealing. I would have liked to have spent more time getting to know him, but he tended to be overshadowed by Grant in any scene they shared--which was the majority of them.

Together, Ben and Talon were more interesting to me as comrades-in-arms than lovers, but that may be because the sex aspect was a bit rushed due to the constraints of the story--it takes place in a time span not much longer than 24 hours. Had they had a little more time to get to know each other beyond "Hey, I get to pop your man-cherry--neat," I might have been more invested. The sex was still entertaining, just lacking that extra layer of interest for me.

The supporting cast was fairly small, the highlights being the ghosts. I couldn't help laughing at Grant's apologies to the ghost of Talon's many-great-grandfather for his inappropriate language. In truth, I had more fun with the bantering with the ghosts than most of the conversations between Ben and Talon alone; Grant added a layer of humor the story needed.

The story itself was a bit strange for me. I knew about the ghost thing, of course, given the blurb, but the vampire aspect caught me out of left field. The vampires were never quite adequately explained--why were they vampires? why were there four?--but they served well enough as the vehicle to the conclusion. I'm not a huge vampire fan in general, but they were introduced enough to be effective without actually taking over the story. The story itself moved along at a good clip, not dragging or really stumbling despite my unanswered questions.

Had I known about the vampire element going into this, I probably would have given it a pass. As it stands, I'm glad I didn't, as I would have missed out on an entertaining tale, even if the ghosts did steal the scene.