Second Sunrise: A Lee Nez Novel [Hardcover]

Aimee Thurlo (Author), David Thurlo (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lee Nez Novels | Publication Date: November 1, 2002

Sixty years ago New Mexico patrolman Lee Nez and his partner foiled the hijacking of an American military convoy transporting nuclear material. At the end of the firefight, all of the soldiers and Lee's partner were dead-and Lee's life was forever transformed.

Now a nightwalker, the Navajo equivalent of a vampire, Lee lives with one foot in the human world and one in a world full of monsters. In 2002, Lee Nez is a cop again, now known as Leonard Hawk. His more-than-human abilities have made him the target of murderous Navajo witches-skinwalkers-who want his powers for themselves. When cool, capable FBI agent Diane Lopez questions Lee about an incident on the Navajo Reservation, Lee can't tell her than the people he killed that night were skinwalkers out for his blood.

Lee and Diane are attacked by a wolf pack. Diane is stunned when the wolf she shoots shapeshifts into a woman before dying. On the run, Lee tells Diane of his true nature-and that he is convinced the vampire who made him one of the undead has returned to New Mexico in the guise of German Air Force pilot Wolfgang Muller. Muller has been much too close to the place where Lee hid the plutonium six decades ago-a trap for the vampire, set with the inhuman patience of a nightwalker.

Using police and FBI resources as well as Navajo healing magics and his own supernatural powers, Lee and Diane hunt for Muller and his undead offspring. Muller was to sell the nuclear material to the highest bidder-what does he care if some humans blow up some other humans, as long as he can find fresh sources of blood? When Muller takes Diane captive, Lee swears he won't lose another partner to the vampire's evil.

Second Sunrise is the first in a series of novels featuring Lee Nez, an undead hero who lives in a world where magic and monsters are all too real. The Thurlos' skill at evoking of Southwestern settings and Navajo philosophies and lifestyles combines with their ability to create strong plots and solid characters in this fast-paced, action-filled story of supernatural suspense.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's 1945, and Lee Nez, the first Navajo New Mexico state patrolman, foils a Nazi plot to steal a shipment of plutonium in this middling horror novel from the authors of the Ella Clah mystery series. The last man standing and barely alive, Nez manages to hide the "secret weapon," but the top German spy-guy, whom Nez "killed," is able to find the Native American cop since he's in fact a vampire. In an effort to wring the plutonium's location from Nez, the German keeps him alive by turning him into a vampire. After Nez makes his escape, his vampiric vulnerability to sunlight is partly ameliorated thanks to a medicine man. Other supernatural characteristics remain, but they're less intense than in a full-fledged vampire: although his appetite increases, Nez doesn't need blood to survive. As a "nightwalker" he acquires dangerous new enemies, the "skinwalkers," evil shape-changing witches, who want to kill Nez to obtain his immortality (although Nez isn't immortal). The narrative glosses over 50 years of adaptation, danger and search for the German vampire in a few pages. We then find Nez, under the name of Leonard Hawk, a state policeman again. Hawk meets up with Diane Lopez, a beautiful Hispanic FBI agent. Bureau suspicions have been aroused by his handling of a case involving skinwalkers. Hints of the Nazi vampire surface. Danger mounts. But stilted dialogue and weak characterization destroy any hope of sustainable fantasy or mystery. The ending bodes sequels of more mindless evil.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Lee Nez, a Navajo and New Mexico patrolman, stumbles upon the attempted hijacking of a U.S. Army convoy. In the struggle that follows, Lee is seriously wounded but not before he has a chance to hide the convoy's valuable cargo-a container of plutonium. Hijacker Wolfgang Muller uses his vampiric blood to heal Lee's wounds, but this is not an altruistic act. Muller wants to know where the plutonium is hidden, but Lee refuses to divulge the information. Because of the mixing of human and vampire blood, Lee has taken on many telling characteristics-aversion to sunlight, enhanced physical powers, and immortality. He has in fact become a "nightwalker," the Navajo equivalent of a vampire. Although the authors have a command of Navajo culture and lore, this novel falls short owing to tedious dialog, wooden characters, and a predictable plot. Still, followers of their Ella Clah novels will probably find this book of interest. Second Sunrise is the first in the "Lee Nez Night Walker" series. [CBS is developing a series based on Ella Clah, which may increase demand for back titles as well as this new series.-Ed.]-Patricia Altner, Information Seekers, Columbia, M.
--Patricia Altner, Information Seekers, Columbia, MD
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765304414
• ISBN-13: 978-0765304414
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,440,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fresh Twist on Vampires But Doesn't Cut It, January 8, 2005

By 

M. E. Wood "Content Writer and Reviewer" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Second Sunrise: A Lee Nez Novel (Hardcover)

Second Sunrise is a new serial by the Thurlo team. They have over 30 books to their credit. I am not sure what happened here.

Second Sunrise begins on a dark night in the secluded hills of Fort Wingate, New Mexico, when state patrolman Lee Nez's life is forever altered. Lee and his rookie partner Benny interrupt a military ambush massacre. Benny is murdered and Lee is mortally injured. Lee wakes a new man, a nightwalker, which apparently is the Navajo word for vampire.

The story jumps to sixty years later. Lee continues to search for the nightwalker who transformed him and to fend off the skinwalkers who want the immortal properties of his blood. Skinwalker is a term for Navajo witches able to shapeshift into wolves.

Just when you thought that every vampire story had been told, the Thurlos come out with a fresh twist. Second Sunrise is no Dracula and the Thurlos are no Bram Stoker. I love vampire stories. I didn't like this book, at least not as a whole.

There was much about the story that I enjoyed. The supporting character FBI Agent Diane Lopez is strong, confident and can hold her own despite the gravity of the situations in which she finds herself. The premise of Navajo magic and the ancient history behind it and its people is intriguing and well presented, describing cultural cues like finger pointing and waiting outside to be invited in.

Unfortunately, I found the first chapters slow and tedious. From the jacket cover I already knew someone was going to die and that Lee would become a nightwalker. This section took too long to get to the point. Throughout the novel there was a lot of telling going on. Too much time was spent talking about personality traits instead of showing them through actions. This made it difficult to connect with the lead character positively or negatively, therefore there was no emotional involvement with him, his life or his actions.

Second Sunrise was overly repetitive. Benny's death and the young bride and infant son he leaves behind are mentioned four times in the first 83 pages. Totally unnecessary and irritating. The story isn't so involved that the reader wouldn't remember a driving force such as this. There are many other instances of this kind of repetition.

The language reflected this redundancy, with overused phrases, unnecessarily mundane details, and facts pointed out to the reader evident within the scene. All these details make it seem as though readers have short attention spans.

I believe this could have been an exciting addition to the vampire genre. I just think it was released too soon. So much more could have been done with it. It needs to be tidied up. Perhaps it would have helped to have the point of view in first person. If you want to read a different twist on the vampire story then pick this up but if you want a gripping tale with believable characters you can sympathize with and be moved by, this isn't it.

Review Originally Posted at http://www.linearreflections.com

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A vampire cursed by poor writing, December 23, 2002

By 

charles falk (Novato, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Second Sunrise: A Lee Nez Novel (Hardcover)

Having enjoyed several of the Ella Clah mysteries by the Thurlos, I had high expectations for Second Sunrise. Those were dashed almost immediately. #1 places the book in the horror genre and it is indeed a horror of clunky narrative, stilted dialogue, and unconvincing plot.

In 1945, Lee Nez, a New Mexico State Policeman of Navajo extraction and his partner come upon a gang of German spies led by a Nazi vampire attacking a military convoy carrying plutonium for the Manhattan Project. Everyone but Nez and the vampire are killed in the ensuing firefight. Nez manages to hide the plutonium before the German vampire turns him into a vampire. Nez goes to a Navajo healer living conveniently nearby and is partially cured of his vampirism. "partially" means he is less strong than a full-blown vampire, but can survive in daylight with a good coat of sunblock. The healer warns him to watch out for skinwalkers -- Navajo shapeshifters -- because they can smell vampires and covet their immortality. So much for prologue.

55 years later, Nez has rejoined the New Mexico State Police in the four corners area as Leonard Hawk. He apparently spent the intervening years exterminating skinwalkers and the odd vampire. He learns that the German vampire has returned, posing as a German airforce pilot in order to recover the plutonium Nez hid for Iraqi terrorists. Lee Hawk's inquiry about the German pilot brings him to the attention of a beautiful, spunky FBI agent. She becomes his ally after they are attacked at his apartment by a pack of skinwalkers in wolf form.

The story ought to be riviting, but it clanks along like the caterpiller tractor that figures in the anticlimactic denouement.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars And I Thought It Would Never End!, March 22, 2004

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Second Sunrise: A Lee Nez Novel (Hardcover)

This book tumbled out of my hands and hit the floor about the point that the female FBI Agent and the female Vampire began to insult one another about their respective weights. That has to be a new low in vampire fiction. The other times the book fell out of my hands was because I could no longer keep my eyes open as Nez and Lopez have long pointless conversations with the occasional coy romantic comment. I think that the FBI agent who was killed early in the book got off easily compared to those of us who stayed to the end.

The authors cannot resist hopping on every new bandwagon that goes by, unfortunately they forget to get off the old bandwagons. Therefore, in this book we have a female FBI agent out to avenge her dead partner, skinwalkers (sort of Navaho Werewolves), German vampires, and a Navaho vampire state cop also out to avenge his dead partner (who was killed in 1945). All of the characters are one dimensional at best.

The skinwalkers are inherently evil and hunt vampires for no discernable purpose except the authors needed some action to propel the story to its next stage. The German vampires are equally purposeless except they want to get their hands on a case that might (no one really knows for sure) contain uranium or plutonium or something radioactive-- so much of this book is just two characters who have no facts engaging in fruitless speculation.

Let's not forget the writing. There is a lot of telling and not showing with strange moments of exposition that make me think that the authors had suddenly thought of something they should have mentioned earlier, so they jam it into the conversation whether it feels natural-- if any of the conversation in this book seems natural-- or not.

I think I should say something positive about the book, though. The dust jacket on the hard cover is rather clever and unusual. Shame it couldn't be on a better book.