This book was WOW…so good. It’s a book about grief, trauma, revenge…and vampires!! Taking place in the late 70’s as a backdrop, we meet Duane, a Vietnam Vet and bartender, who’s just trying to stay sober and help his wife raise their niece while her mother spends the rest of her life in prison. Life has taken it’s toll on the whole family–life above the bar that her parents own (instead of chasing her dream of writing and witnessing the man you love return from war–harder and a little colder, and a little bit unable to do much more than tend bar, seems hard). But a cakewalk in comparison to their 13 year old niece Julia, who had to watch her mother kill her stepfather at the dinner table, and be relieved by it. Things are no picnic for Heidi’s parents (Duane’s bosses) either. Heidi’s dad has cancer that has progressed and Heidi’s mom is about to trade just about anything to save him. And that sets in motion the collision course between Duane and John Varley, the vampire (who appears just be hanging out with a vicious MC club).
Once the inciting actions occur, the book starts taking off (I’ll admit, it was a little slow getting there) and we get Duane and Julia on the hunt for Varley; both Duane and Julia hell-bent on revenge and fully feeling rage and little else. This becomes a road trip that seems destined for failure– How does one hunt a vampire who’s been around for hundreds of years? How can you convince a police officer that bolting before getting cleared and your wife’s funeral doesn’t mean that you’re guilty and that you’re not actually kidnapping your niece? How do you tell people that you’re too far gone in sadness and that your niece is running the show now?
This book is fantastic and I would recommend it those who love horror (it is pretty gory). Rosson has a pretty great take on vampire lore and adds new levels of cool powers and actually a weird layer of a vampire falling in love for the first time and wanting to get to Alaska (It felt like a gangster trying to desperately get “out of the business”). This is also a great road trip book. The details of dive bar after dive bar, shitty motels, and life on the road broke are all painted in such a way that YOU are on this trip with Duane and Julia and at no point do you know if your drivers care if they get out alive…and that should scare you.
I’ve never read Keith Rosson before, but I am definitely hooked if this is the typical fare he produces…so, so good!! It kind of gave me the feeling when I was first introduced to The Pine Deep Trilogy–electrified that there are some really great horror writers out there for me to find!
