The Fangs of Freelance (Fred, the Vampire Accountant #4) by Drew Hayes

Being an accountant, even if it is for the paranormal community should pretty much be a danger free calm job. Despite Fred's sweater vests and over all calm demeanor, trouble seems to routinely find him.  Fred isn't the bravest vampire in existence but his strong sense of morality and concern for others has earned him friends and allies who are quite powerful.  Now that Fred is the leader of his own clan, he has to become even more involved in the lives of his friends.

My constant criticism of this series is that each book is more like compilation of short stories rather than one long discernible novel with a beginning, middle, climax and end.  It's almost as though Hayes had several good ideas and could not find a way to pick one and flesh it out until it became a standard length novel. What Hayes does instead is to pick an overriding theme and then write stories which fit whatever narrative he's chosen to fixate on.

The Fangs of Freelance is really all about how Fred adjusts to being the leader of his own clan and the new alliance he makes with the Agency.  Fred may not be a brave vampire and is still relatively new to the supernatural in comparison to his friends but becoming the leader of  the clan of Fred has given him remarkable power. Fred could choose lawfully to twist his friends to his will, or to make life altering decisions for them but instead, Fred chooses to use his powers to empower their autonomy.  This manifests when Fred encourages Albert to spread his wings because Albert possess a weapon of destiny, even though this will take Albert away from Fred.  It's Fred who sees the usury of Amy's contract and rather than enriching himself, not only gives Amy the ability to free herself financially, thus opening up new options, he turns down a bribe to maintain the status quo. Essentially, Fred is just a classic good guy.

Fred's basic decency has earned him the respect of his friends who have formed his clan.  This decency has caused his friends to jump to his aid when he needs it and or risk their lives to protect him.  Arch actually dies to protect Fred from his sire. Sure, Arch may have the ability to resurrect but being decapitated cannot be any fun.

The Fangs of Freelance is the fourth novel in this series and I have to say that the novelty is starting to wear a little thin.  Yes, Fred is unique because of his passion for numbers, fairness, and sweater vests. Yes, Fred gets himself into interesting situations because of his unfamiliarity with the paranormal world and his skill as an account allows him to come up with unique solutions. The problem is that Hayes has hammered home on this to such a degree that it feels been there done that.  The Fangs of Freelance doesn't really offer anything new to this universe or give us any new characterisation to make it a fun read. If you're going to go down a quirky road, it's something that you have to keep playing with in order for it not to grow old and tired.

Bloody Acquisitions (Fred, the Vampire Accountant #3) by Drew Hayes

Fred's new undead life as an abandoned vampire in Winslow, Colorado has been busy and full of trials but he's settled now, having built a family out of the friends he's managed to acquire in recent years. Even Fred's business as a paranormal accountant is booming, causing him to work both and night and day to deliver on his contracts on time.  All in all, other than having more business than he can handle sometimes, Fred is pretty content.  As the saying goes however eventually every shoe must fall.  When a new vampire clan moves into town intent on filling in the power vacuum, Fred must choose between staying and fighting for the life he has built or moving to a town run by fellow paranormals.

This is the third installment in the Fred, the Vampire Accountant series. My major concern in the first two books is that they read like a collection of short stories rather than one continuous novel from start to finish.  Hayes does much better this time around though at times the he does drift into little side stories that don't have much to do with the main plot.  Because I find the idea of a vampire accountant who simply wants to do right by his clients and be with his friends so novel, when the distraction happens, it's easy to just go along for the ride, particularly because the distraction usually comes with some sort of ridiculous nonsense which is laugh out loud funny.   It is however worth noting that Blood Acquisitions does have a problem with line editing which might be an issue for some readers.

What continues to make Fred, the Vampire Accountant series so fascinating to me is Hayes treatment of gender. Normally in a vampire story, it's the vampire who fits into the role of anti hero and the vampire who is strong enough to induce fear in anyone or anything he meets.  Fred, the Vampire Accountant series puts this all out of balance because Fred, with his infamous sweater vests, is never the strongest person in any room and in fact, when the opportunity arises for him to amass more power, Fred turns it down. With the exception of a human female lawyer who Fred absolutely sees as an equal, all the women in Fred's life are significantly more powerful and knowledgeable about the paranormal world than he is. Even Fred's agent girlfriend Krystal, sees it as her job to protect Fred.

What I like the most about Fred is his loyalty to his friends and his clients.  When the Turva sets up residence in Winslow, Fred quickly finds that he's running out of options.  He heads to see a dragon to ask about other vampires and when offered a sample to increase his power or the opportunity to have all of his problems simply whisked away, Fred refuses. It would be so easy for Fred to have all of his enemies killed, thus assuring him that no other group of vampires would try to set up stakes in Winslow for at least a hundred years but Fred instead considers the innocent vampires who would lose their lives. Even when he's about to forced into making an alliance with Turva, essentially making him subordinate to their leadership, Fred refuses to lean on his much stronger friends because he sees that as taking advantage.  He's determined to stand on his own two feet come what may.

Undeath and Taxes (Fred, the Vampire Accountant #2) by Drew Hayes

Fred has come a long way since becoming a vampire.  He's gone into business for himself as an accountant, found a girlfriend and has made a circle of dependable friends.  That's not bad for a socially awkward person who used to spend most of his time alone.  Now if only he could stop finding himself in positions which force him to brave - something Fred most certainly is not, then things could be perfect.

Just like The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant, Undeath and Taxes, is told through a series of short stories.  This is still not my preferred format for reading and I would have liked one cohesive story from start to finish better. That being said, there was a nice flow to the mini short stories and Hayes took care to add to the meta, even if I am not pleased with what the addition turned out to be.  Hayes also gave us a great sense of the hierarchy in the parahuman world and how it is policed by agents.

My largest complaint with Undeath and Taxes is the predatory child molesting tone it took in terms of Sally's relationship with Gideon the centuries old Dragon.  From the beginning, Fred wonders why Gideon would chosse to cloak himself in a child's body and become Sally's playmate.  In Undeath and Taxes, we learn that Sally is a Tiamet, quite literally the mother of dragons. (Go ahead and let your mind channel Daenerys Targaryen  for a moment and then stroll on back.) This means that when Sally reaches maturity, she will be able to give birth to a dragon and given that the dragon birth rate is exceedingly low, this is a huge deal.  Gideon has therefore struck a deal with Richard, Sally's father to grow up with Sally as her playmate and then marry her when she becomes an adult.  There's only one word for this kind of scenario and it's grooming. Even if Gideon doesn't touch Sally sexually until she's and adult it's still catfishing.

Hayes treats the betrothal between Gideon and Sally as a huge secret but not because of how problematic their relationship is but because of Sally's potential to breed dragons.   First off, making a female character important because of her potential reproductive ability reduces her to nothing but a womb and it's sexist and wrong.  To then have Gideon grow up alongside her, sharing in her confidences, playing the role of friend and shaping who she becomes only to set himself up as a suitor once she reaches maturity is straight out of a pedophiles playbook.  There's simply no other way of looking at it.  It took some of enjoyment out of Undeath and Taxes for me, even if it only accounts for a small part of the book.