Laura Caxton is a Pennsylvania State Trooper working an ordinary weekend night DUI checkpoint. At least that’s how it starts. Events rapidly spiral out of control when she finds the remains of a family in the trunk of the car of an unusual looking driver. The sane, normal world Laura has known up to this point is about to take a major turn
and her concept of reality is tested to the breaking point. By the end of that first night, she will become the unwilling apprentice to the world’s last known vampire killer, U.S. Marshall Jameson Arkeley. David Wellington, author of the Monster Island zombie trilogy, puts his original spin on the vampire mythos with 13 Bullets, the
first of a new trilogy. You won’t find any crosses, silver, or garlic here. And you won’t find any ruffled shirt, romantic vampires in Wellington’s first vampire novel. And that’s how it should be.

In 13 Bullets (so named because that’s how many hollow point bullets Special Deputy Arkeley keeps loaded in his Glock) vampires were thought to be extinct. According to the government, Arkeley took care of the last known vampire in1983. Of course the Marshall knows differently and after a two decade absence the deadly predators have chosen to resurface, with a vengeance. Sensing that Trooper Caxton possesses qualities that not even she is aware of, Arkeley recruits her to assist him in his investigation of the creatures. And make no mistake, these predators are as formidable as any in vampire literature. Besides their inhuman strength and virtual invulnerability, they command hordes of half-deads who exist only to do the bidding of their vampire masters. Laura Caxton, a resourceful woman who up to this point has led a totally unremarkable existence, is in for the adventure of her wildest nightmares.

Deftly plotted, Wellington’s prose style flows like blood from an open wound. The action never lets up, careening at breakneck speed from the first page to the last. The tension is so palpable it was all I could do not to glance at the end of every page to see what was going to happen next. Caxton is a character we sympathize with, as she
represents all of us as she is thrown into a world she could never have expected. It’s her humanity, especially in contrast to Arkeley’s cold, jaded demeanor that carries the novel. We care what happens to Laura, and to the people close to her. We even care for Arkeley, rough edges and all. This is a vampire novel for horror fans; no lovesick sex symbols are to be found here. The gore is plentiful and the action is first-rate. The second and third in the series can’t get to me from Amazon fast enough. I am excited to have discovered David Wellington,
and I hope many of you will do the same.