Customer Reviews

Night Hunter

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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+

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.

This one really drags. The characters are all stereotypes moving through a milieu of Los Angeles street life that reads as if it were lifted straight from movies about Los Angeles street life. All of this could be forgiven if it moved quickly and was done with style. However, there was too much uninteresting characterization and hardly any action at all.