13 Bullets

Awesome action packed vampire thriller!

Backstory:

FBI Special Agent Jameson Arkeley a/k/a vampire hunter teams up with a state trooper Laura Caxton to take on a vampire. Laura Caxton doesn't believe in vampires at first until they come up against one in action then her mind does a 360 degree turn when she realizes that vampires do exist. As they both soon find out, there is more than just the one vampire flitting around the city of Pennsylvania and they have to learn to work together if they want to elminate the threat of the vampires that have taken over the city.

The vampires are out for blood and they will do whatever it takes to feed their thirst along with trying to stay one step ahead of Arkeley and Caxton. Arkeley takes Caxton under his wing so to speak to teach her the fundamentals of how to kill vampires.

Thoughts:

This was my second reread of the book as I am wanting to step into the rest of the series. The character, Laura is in denial about vampires in the beginning of the book but changes her tune quickly when she finds out they do exist. The character, Arkeley reminded me of Van Helsing as he is a hardened vampire hunter which knows the ins and outs of how to deal with the vampires. Both characters mesh really well through the book and the story moves along at a fast paced clip.

The book has action galore with guns blazing, edge of your seat suspense, thrilling action scenes, gore flying, and bloody corpses!

The first part of the book takes off with a bang and the action doesn't let up as it moves along at a fast pace! Giving this book five "Fangtastic Vampire stars! ( )

This was an interesting vampire story. The vampires in this book were not handsome or sexy. They were gritty killing machines. If you like horror stories and vampires, this book is a decent read. ( )

I really liked this book, but then again I'm no real lover of the vampire, I tend to cheer for vampire hunters. I think if vampires existed they would be much like the ones in 13 Bullets. They are MONSTERS after all. ( )

Been wanting to read this series for a while now ... so many books, so little time.

I have not, hitherto, considered myself to be a reader of horror fiction - mostly because I'm a wimp and I don't want to have nightmares. But I really enjoyed this one.

To be honest, it's gory rather than scary, per se. Body count in triple figures, mostly courtesy of vampires who are actual monsters. These are not your wishy-washy sparkly vampires: these are predators. (Admittedly, I have a few minor quibbles with the way Wellington does vampires, but really, it's his train set and he can play with it however he likes - and minor quibbles did not significantly detract from my enjoyment [during daylight hours] of the story.)

Laura Caxton, highway patrol trooper, makes an unpleasant discovery at a routine traffic stop - and gets conscripted as junior van Helsing by the United States' best (only) vampire hunter: Special Deputy Arkeley. There must be something special about Laura, beyond the fact that she's the only one who's read Arkeley's report of his last (only) vampire killing - mustn't there?

The narrative follows the confused, scared Laura as she struggles to meet Arkeley's expectations (if she can figure out what they are) and to work out why he wants her at all. And why the vampires seem to want her, too. I have never hunted vampires, but Laura's reactions seemed to be pretty realistic - she goes through the gamut of this is cool/horror/fear/despair/terror/etc that a real person thrust into such a situation might do, rather than instantly becoming some kind of superpowered vampire killer. This was a nice change.

And I did like the twist at the end. Some might find it disappointing, but I thought it gave the whole book a new layer. You end up looking at the whole thing from a slightly different angle, and thinking yep, that's life.

Thoroughly recommended. ( )