Sweet Tooth & Lord of the Pies by R.M. Huffman

A short urban fantasy. Physicians often spend nights awake, up at the hospital caring for patients. On most occasions this doctor is no different, but on Halloween, his nocturnal activities take on a different hue...blood red.

Meet Dr. Pierce.  He's a doctor that works for an asylum in New York. He's also a vampire who's an activist in the 'non-human eating' vampire society as well as a master of wit.

In Sweet Tooth, we meet Dr. Pierce on Halloween.  Since it's Halloween, he's craving a sweet snack.  He sneaks into a hospital in an attempt to slake his sweet thirst.  

In Sweet Tooth:  Lord of the Pies, it's Thanksgiving.  Dr.  Pierce has an unusual new admission that could cause some serious problems.  Thanks to the good doctor's super powers and the help of some unlikely friends, they may be able to keep the damage to a minimum.

The main reason I was anxious to read Sweet Tooth, well, let's face it...vampire psychiatrist.  Need I say more?  I was quite impressed by Huffman's writing style.  It's witty, intelligent, and even tosses a few factoids in for the audience.  He has an interesting sense of humor that kept me enthralled.  It's incredibly difficult to create a world, characters and plot in 7 or 8 pages, but Huffman succeeds surprisingly well.  Instead of giving you every detail, Huffman draws your attention only to the details that are actually important.  Instead of sitting there picturing what the desk is like, and the walls, and the floor, and what everyone is wearing, we get a descriptive vision of a turkey that is so vivid that you can smell it.  Because of this, each short story is a satisfying read.  You don't walk away feeling like you've missed out on anything, but rather that you've read way  more than just under ten pages.

Smashwords currently has Sweet Tooth and Sweet Tooth:  Lord of the Pies for free.  That won't be enough though.  Huffman has created six short stories surrounding Dr. Pierce.  Instead of getting each short story individually, you can get the Sweet Tooth Omnibus.  Then you can just sit back and read all of the short stories back to back.  In this way, it reads more like a novella.  

Huffman has created fascinating characters with thrilling mini-plots.  I'd really like to see a long-term purpose behind Dr.  Pierce.  My personal hope is that each of these short stories will lead Huffman to the ultimate reason for Dr. Pierce's existence and that that full story will be shared with us.

 

 

 

*All opinions are my own.  Shawn