My Five Word TL:DR Review : Murder Mystery, Prejudice and Vampyrs

My first thoughts upon finishing The Gathering – I hope there is more yet to come from this world and these characters.  What an unusual combination of murder mystery and vampyrs (I’m not spelling it wrong, that’s how it’s spelt in this story).  This is no typical immortals story.  The setting is dour, there is no glamour here or false romanticism and the vampyrs, well, they’re not movie versions.  They are strong and fast, they live longer, although not forever as we witness in this story, they can recover from injuries that a human would not walk away from, they are. naturally, predators, but they’re also survivors and over the years have had to change in order to survive.  There are more humans than vampyrs, and they are well armed.

Deadhart, Alaska. 873. Living.  

Deadhart is a small Alaskan town.  It’s a town of extremes.  Cold weather, short days, few prospects and a back history of harsh brutality.  This is a former mining town, no stranger to vampyrs, the occupants have had run ins before and have dealt with ‘matters’ themselves.  However, in this more enlightened age, vampyrs being almost extinct, they are now protected and so we have a ‘colony’ of vampyrs living cheek by jowl with Deadhart.  The situation is one of tension to say the least and so when a local teenager is murdered, and the signs clearly point to a vampyr attack, the gloves are off, the residents demand a culling and a special detective, Barbara Atkins, of the Forensic Vampyr Anthropology Department, is sent to investigate.  Barbara is no pushover, she’s not going to simply rubber stamp the culling of an entire colony to satisfy some of the town’s more enthusiastic haters.  She’s a determined woman and she’s going to investigate this killing thoroughly.

So, what did I love about this book.

Well, firstly, this isn’t a traditional vampyr story at all.  The vampyrs here are more an analogy of minority groups and the abuse and prejudice they suffer.  There’s a good degree of small mindedness and unwillingness to change.  Something bad happens in Deadhart and the first reaction is to break out the torches and pitchforks and, well, questions can be asked later.  There is plenty of bad blood between the town’s occupants and the vampyrs, they have a long history, that has not been forgotten, and to be honest, this is mostly one-sided, the town people hunting, killing and tormenting the vampyrs whenever they see fit.

As you may imagine, Barbara isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms and her work is not made easy by some but she is determined to uncover the truth.  Barbara is a fantastic character.  I really liked her.  Her own story slowly unfolds and gives you a welcome insight about why she is so relentless in pursuit of the truth.  She is eventually joined by a retired, former sheriff known as Tucker, who reluctantly returns to the role.  They make a great team in more ways than one.

Tudor has totally nailed the small town feel of fear, prejudice, ignorance and tension.  You could cut the atmosphere with a knife and you’re reading with this ever increasing fear that you know what is going to hit the fan and it’s going to be nasty.

I really liked the mystery aspects to the story.  Barbara is a great investigator and her and Tucker make a good team, bouncing ideas off each other.  His own story and knowledge of Deadhart are invaluable and Barbara is both clever and trustful of her own natural instincts.  She immediately feels like something is ‘off’ about this killing and starts to dig deeper, eventually uncovering not only a horrific black market in vampyr artefacts, a brutal history concerning an establishment known as the ‘bone house’ but also a potential serial killer.  There is some dark material here for sure but at the same time there’s almost a toned down delivery of the story that prevents it from becoming too bloody or unpalatable  Like I said, this isn’t your typical vampyr story and the murder investigation is the main focus.

In conclusion, well this is another fantasy murder mystery that I couldn’t get enough of.  I was glued to the page and gobbled this up in literally two sittings, staying up well into the night to read ‘just one more chapter’.

A really good start to what I hope will become something more.  Fingers crossed that Barbara will grace the pages of another story where her investigative skills are put to good use.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars