The Abbey (Chris Culver)

Indianapolis Police Detective Sgt. Ashraf “Ash” Rashid, assigned to the Prosecutor’s Office, is a Muslim who drinks a lot (and often), in direct contradiction to Muslim law. His work is his life, as are his wife Hannah, and his daughter Megan.

Ash’s niece, 17-year-old Rachel, who was into sanguinarism (vampirism) and drank blood, is found dead, the victim of something put into a vial of red liquid she’d drunk. Her boyfriend, Robbie Cutting, also winds up dead after talking to Ash.

Rashid’s former partner, Det. Olivia Rhodes, is on the investigating team, and tries to help him when it seems all the evidence is pointing to him, especially when two of Rachel’s friends also die after talking to him. Lt. Mike Bowers, head of Homicide, makes the investigations of Rachel’s and Robbie’s deaths look cut and dried, and closes the case.

Ash doesn’t let it go, however, and visits The Abbey – a nightclub set in an old church; its patrons are into vampirism, providing Rashid’s only leads.

His investigation leads him to microbiologist Dr. Karen Rea, CEO of Sunshine Blood Products and creator of Fangporion.com. It becomes apparent that she’s heavily involved with whatever’s going on. Once a rising star in academics and microbiological research, Dr. Rea has been shunned for her involvement in “Project Coast,” a South African bio-chemical weapons program designed to ensure the survival of white supremacy.

But is that what’s behind the murders? Maybe, maybe not. There is betrayal, but not by the obvious person. Only after the climactic showdown do we learn the truth.

Culver’s writing is quite choppy at times, basically using one declarative sentence after another, somewhat devoid of transitional words and phrases that might give a smoother flow to the story. However, the work does move along as a brisk pace.

Conversion of The Abbey from print to ebook was a bit sloppy, as quite a few "codes" (such as — and é) were substituted when the text files were converted.

The Abbey (2011)

Chris Culver

Kindle eBook ($.99 at Amazon.com)

ASIN: B004M18ZRS