Kamm has an eclectic knowledge of arcane subjects--Tibetan culture, paramedic training, the Southern California beach scene, the LA Goth world and Russian criminal enterprise--but like his three disparate protagonists, none are sufficiently interesting to form a cohesive plot. Taking advantage of the lure of the Pacific coastline and the pop obsession with all that is vampiric, Kamm has his idealistic paramedic, Colt Lewis, attempt to track down and recover the missing foot of the victim of a fatal accident. Colt’s search leads him to Markus, an albino wanna-be vampire with absolutely no redeeming qualities, and through Markus, a Tibetan student with a rare blood type toiling away the midnight hours at a university lab doing specialized research.

The all-American innocence of the main protagonist serves as the focus for the storyline, Colt’s initiation into the darker side of a helping profession laden with innate horrors, the hijinks of Markus on a quest for rare blood, illegal drugs and money meant to balance light and dark. The student is the only slender link between the two and necessary to make sense of the theme, although the author fails to really milk this aspect for its potential. It’s hard to credit this plot with much sincerity, although Kamm has moments of clarity. But frankly, any serious writer who allows his faux vampire to utter words like “girnormous” and “gazillionaire” cannot expect to be taken seriously.

Straddling pop fiction, fantasy and suspense, the “blood” in Code Blood is diluted with distractions, clumsy segues and confused intentions.