Night Hunter [Paperback]

Michael Reaves (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1997

As the corpses of would-be actors with wooden stakes driven through their hearts, severed heads, and garlic-stuffed mouths are discovered, it becomes clear to Los Angelos police detective Jake Hull that a killer who believes he is hunting vampires is on the prowl. Reprint. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What do you get when you stir up the "bubbling cauldron" of the "city of angels and demons" during Halloween week? Here, you get a series of cliched details and a routine plot. Start with a stake in the heart. Move on to a clove of garlic in the mouth. Add a Satanist, the obligatory drug scene, street people and sex hustlers, and you've got more than enough information to work out your own conventional serial-stalker potboiler. Reaves (Street Magic) attempts to cobble detective story to vampire tale but only manages to drum up a familiar scenario replete with customary characters like Det. Sgt. Jake Hull, the requisite Hollywood gumshoe, recently divorced and working the homicide night shift, scratching the ugly underbelly of L.A. to discover his own "dark nature." He carries psychological baggage from a shooting incident in which he lost a partner and killed an eight-year-old gang member. He and his central-casting entourage pursue a purportedly 3000-year-old man into the hills behind the D in the HOLLYWOOD sign to a predictable resolution among the shambles of an abandoned Aztec-themed movie theater. A subplot involving struggling standup comics segues into the main plot when one of them becomes a victim and another is pursued. Drag in the druids and a casting couch, and you have two more standard touchstones. Though Reaves captures the tone and tenor of the seedy Hollywood scene, it's all been done before.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Tom Doherty Assoc Llc (February 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812519949
• ISBN-13: 978-0812519945
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,368,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vampires in La-La Land, with a twist, February 25, 2003

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Night Hunter (Paperback)

The Night Hunter is the second novel in a series of urban fantasies based on different magic traditions, but with a twist. Moreover, these stories are all hard-boiled mysteries. This novel invokes the tradition of life-stealing vampires.

Jake Hull is a detective in the LAPD who is assigned a case where the victim has been stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake. Immediately the newspapers start crying "vampire hunter". Jake co-opts a younger uniformed policeman to assist when the pressure comes down to catch the murderer before the media goes bonkers. When the "vampire hunter" strikes again, Jake also co-opts a female Medical Examiner to help.

This novel plays heavily on the Hollywood tradition of vampire movies, but ultimately strikes out on its own. Note the references to the Midnight Star and Ed Thayer from Street Magic.

Recommended for Reaves fans and anyone who enjoys a good horror story that acknowledges the Hollywood tradition without being confined by it.

-Arthur W. Jordin

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of my favorite books, July 1, 2002

By 

Michael24 (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Hunter (Hardcover)

NIGHT HUNTER is one of the rare books that I read beginning to end in a short amount of time. I finished it in just two days, and it only took two days because I got distracted with something else. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. Michael Reaves did an excellent job making Det. Jake Hull feel like a real character who was really burned out by his job. The story moved at a nice pace and was a constant page-turner. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. Several interesting characters, some suspenseful scenes, a very surprising (and cool) explanation for everything, and an exciting climax (which could have been just a bit longer) made for one of the more exciting books I've read in a recent years. I'd love to see a film version. A+

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Horror Novel of 1995, October 20, 2007

By 

Judah (Terre Haute In USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Night Hunter (Paperback)

Simply, the novel had everything I want in an excellent novel. Good pacing, real characters with flaws, excellent transitions, dark humor, original plot with internal logic that isn't stupid, and an ending that wrapped everything up.

The first two chapters may be rough, as the detective-hero is very cynical and despairing. It gets better.

The plot -- murders are occuring whereby people are killed like vampires should be. A clove of garlic in their mouth and a wooden stake shoved through their beating hearts. Is this really the work of a demented serial killer, or is something more sinister going on?

Normally I enjoy fantasy novels the more than horror, (and the novel does deserve the classification of horror) but Night Hunter just grabbed me and wouldn't let me go.

I consider this a masterpiece of horror, suspense and writing, and recommend you buy it.