Review of Tunnels Of Blood by Darren Shan

Format: Paperback
Genres: Horror, Vampires,
Pages: 162
Publisher: Collins
Release Date: 06/11/2000
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Darren, the vampire's assistant, gets a taste of the city when he leaves the Cirque Du Freak with Evra the snake-boy and Mr. Crepsley. When corpses are discovered--corpses drained of blood-- Darren and Evra are compelled to hunt down whatever foul creature is committing such horrendous acts. Meanwhile, beneath the streets, evil stalks Darren and Evra, and all clues point to Mr. Crepsley. Can they escape, or are they doomed to perish in the tunnels of blood?
 

Tunnels Of Blood is the third book in the Darren Shan series, and the series is getting stronger with each book, in writing style and in plot. Darren Shan has almost lost the juvenile, slightly irritating voice he had in the first book, as he's getting older and wiser now. Also gone is the thing that almost made me put down the second book - the 'but you wouldn't guess what would happen next!' style at the end of each chapter.

The first book was set in Darren's home town, the second book in the circus and this book is set in the city - Larten's city in fact. There's a vicious killer on the loose, leaving piles of bodies behind and Darren suspects that the killer might just be the very person that turned him, Larten Crepsley himself. Darren and Evra - the snake boy he's dragged along with him - find themselves lurking the city at night, trying to solve the mystery.

We do find out who the killer is fairly quickly - inevitable in a story that's less than 200 pages long. It's a fast paced read and the whole story overall feels much quicker than the second book. I was glad to finish it, as I've read some of the books before and I know that it's in the next book that things really start to get interesting!