Blood Justice »

David Burton has been a boat builder, sailor, and custom cabinetmaker and has traveled by thumb, motorcycle, and sailboat. Upon returning from sailing in the South Pacific, he turned to writing. His first published book was a mystery, Manmade for Murder (Write Way Publishing, 1997. Paperback, Worldwide Mysteries, 2000). It was a selection of the Detective Book Club. Hell Cop (Silver Lake Publishing, 2004), a supernatural adventure story, was his second published novel and won 3rd place at the 1998 Colorado Gold Writers Conference. The ebook version was a finalist for the EPPIE awards. Blood Justice, a vampire revenge novel, will be published by By Light Unseen Media in 2010.

He has also written screenplays, including an adaptation of his Hell Cop and Fear Killer novels. The screenplay adaptation of Hell Cop won 1st place at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in 2002. Another screenplay, Time For Love, took 1st place at Pikes Peak in 2001. David now lives with his wife in Southern California and is working on more stories and characters that pass thorough his life and brain in both novel and screenplay form.

About to die during a failed attempt to kill one of the men responsible for her daughter’s death, Justine Kroft is saved by Simone Gireaux, a 350 year old vampire. Justine envies her rescuer’s strength and speed and convinces Simone to make her a vampire, as well. At first Simone is reluctant, but she knows what it means to lose a loved one to brutal murderers.

With the help of Justine’s only true friend, Teresa Diaz (a mortal whose daughter is missing) and Detective Harry Frazer (who has loved Justine for years), Justine and Simone join forces to find and kill the mortal men involved in her daughter’s death. But the real killer is Stephan Sinakov, the self-anointed Master of the Sinakov Vampire Family. In their final confrontation with Sinakov, Justine must make a choice between her daughter and the mortal man whose love for her has put his life on the block.

Publishers Weekly

Revenge and vampires play key roles in Burton's horror-mystery-thriller blend, which follows single mother Justine Kroft's attempts to kill the men who raped and murdered her teen daughter. When Justine's first attack goes awry, Simone Gireaux, a centuries-old French vampire, steps in at the last moment to rescue her, and Justine soon persuades Simone to turn her undead. What follows is a fast-paced, mildly entertaining vengeance quest that quickly broadens from a simple murder case to a conspiracy with sinister blood-sucker Stephan Sinakov at its core. Purple prose ("his eyes... glistened as if permanently ready to overflow with tears, as if hurt and sadness lurked behind them") and vampire clichés mar the narrative a bit, but tight plotting and memorable characters help keep the blood from completely congealing. (Oct.)