A review of Deadly Assessments Fred the Vampire #5 by Drew Hayes

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
Series: Fred, the Vampire Accountant, Book 5
Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
Release date: 08-07-18

The ‘Fred the Vampire Accountant’ series is fantastic. It’s easy going, lots of adventure in a calm and kind of sedated way.

 

It’s a nice change compared to most of the fantasy books that people generally read, situated half in the real world, half in the fantasy world.

This latest instalment was just as good as the others, and was a real pleasure to listen to. In fact I held off from listening to it, because I was savouring it.

Story

Here’s the summary from Good Reads to wet your appetite:

After several years as a vampire, starting a business, founding his own clan, and proposing to his girlfriend, Fred is finally beginning to settle into life as an undead accountant. Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about his continued survival, or the dangerous friends he’s made along the way.

The Blood Council has dispatched a representative to determine if Fred is fit for the position he currently fills as head of a clan, and the stakes for failure are deathly serious. Worse, Fred will have to muddle through without the help of Krystal, who is off on a mysterious task of her own.

Saddled with a new bodyguard, Fred will have to prove he’s got what it takes to be a respectable vampire, control his abilities, and lead a clan. Because if he can’t, the House of Fred will be no more.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40881303-deadly-assessments

As per usual the story is broken up into 4 to 5 ‘episodes’/ short stories which all add and join together to form the overall long-reaching story.

These were

  1. An Absence at the Conference

-Fred meets Debora, an elder vampire & member of ‘The Blood Council’ ruling body of vampires who’s been tasked with looking into the viability of Fred as a leader of a vampire clan

  1. A Lesson in the Woods

-Debora takes Fred off into the woods for some basic training & explanations, Fred grows his character but in his own way.

  1. An Issue in Escrow

-Fred is tasked with picking up a magical artefact for Gideon, holding his money in escrow & escaping criminals that would rather have the artefact for themselves.

  1. A Verdict at the Trial

-Debora delivers the verdict of the assessment and assigns a final trial for Fred to pass.

Narration

Kirby Heybourne continues to do an amazing job at bringing everything to life, and it wouldn’t be as good without him.

I haven’t listened to anything else narrated by him, but at the moment I can only imagine him for Fred the Vampire.  This book added a new long-running character Debra (from the Blood Council) – a long lived, incredibly powerful vampire, yet the way that it was written and the way that it was brought to life by Heybourne was just fantastic.

And I think I’m in agreeance with other reviewers on audible in saying I wouldn’t mind a back story on Debra considering how well she was brought to life in the pages by Drew Hayes, and then out loud by Heybourne.

Some good quotes & interesting facts throughout the book

“Systems fail, nations fail, in the end all you can reply on is yourself….and you clan”

-Debora

The 5 aspects of the Blood Council

= Prudence, Wrath, Pride, Wisdom & Control.

Debora’s official title is ‘Prudence’

Is all about the foresight for the Vampire nation, checking to see if things are a threat or not and what needs to be prepared for in advance.

Prudence responds to Wisdom, who makes decisions for what direction they should go in.

Wrath – corresponds to war, measures taken to uphold the vampire nation when attacked

Pride – maintaining the Vampire nation’s pride, image, etc and counciling with Wrath as to when they have been offended to decide when to go to war.

Control keeps all 4 factions together.

Therefore on the Blood Council (the highest ruling body of vampire clans), there are only 5 members.

The Blood Council’s bylaws are written into the agreement with the Agency when the Vampire Nation joined the governing body.

Meaning that even though Fred’s making of his own clan was legal under the agency, the Blood Council reserves the right to make their own conclusions as to who is a fair leader and who is not.

‘The Loyal Lunatics’ – what Debora ends up calling ‘The House of Fred’ ie. Fred’s Clan made up of Fred, Bubba, Amy, Neil, Albert, Vivienne & Charlotte.

Recommendation

If you’ve read the previous books in the series, you should definitely listen to this.  It’s another light hearted, fun, easy listen that’s still full of great stories.  And, this book focuses more on Fred & the development of his character.

Still waiting for the Easter Eggs to be realised (See review of NPCs) or (Review of Fred the Vampire series 1-3)

If you haven’t read Fred The Vampire Accountant before, I would thorough recommend it, provided you can take a bit of fantasy.  It’s not as hardcore as many fantasy books, and builds it up slowly, so I would more recommend this series than other books in the ‘fantasy’ genre.

All in all, More! shouts the Crowd