David Wellington - 13 Bullets

[andydecker]

David Wellington - 13 Bullets (Three Rivers Press, 2007, Tradepaperback, 323 pages)

After his zombie trilogy David Wellington wrote for nearly every genre, from fantasy to techno-thriller. This is the first of his vampire series, which at the end became 5 books. Like the zombie novels this concentrates on action first and then some nice variations of the topic.

The basic idea here is that this is kind of a parallel world. Vampires are a different species which is nearly extinct. While they change when feeding, they have no big supernatural powers, but are hard to kill. No emo vamps here or watchers of history, they just want to rip your face off and bathe in your blood.

The story begins in 2003 in Pennsylvania. Twenty years ago Special Deputy Arkeley has supposedly killed the last vampire on a rampage and put the queen of the bloodsuckers behind bars. (As long as they don't kill the vampires are protected through civil rights.) But hundreds of years old and frail Justinia Malvern is plotting to escape her confinement and create new bloodsuckers. (Which in this world is a complicated procedure; the victim has willingly to become a vampire or he/she ends up as a half-dead, a dim servant creature.) When the first corpses are found, old and bitter Arkeley is sent to investigate. At his side is young state trooper Laura Caxton, a no nonsense, mobbed lesbian. The unlikly team will go through hell.

This is basically a cop buddy movie without the humour, relentless action, some solid characterisation, many twists und some more than solid violence. It is a monster hunt first and a horror novel second, if you want to categorize it. At the time Wellington had a knack for interesting locations and vivid descriptions. The second novel is set at Gettysburg (and in the Civil War) and at the creepy medical Mütter Museum, the third one is set in parts in burning Centralia, the fourth is set at entirely in a super-maximum security prison.

If you ignore the lame cover, this is an entertaining read which at 300+ pages has the right length. Just don't expect something deep.