Stake

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Pub Date 4 Aug 2020 | Archive Date 16 Nov 2020

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Description

Vampire hunter or serial killer? That depends on whether vampires exist . . . Simon Helsing believes the only way to stop a bad guy with fangs is a good guy with a stake. He has devoted his life to ridding the world of vampires. He hunts them, finds their daytime lairs, and pounds a stake through their hearts. Lexi Tarada wants to believe. She's desperate to prove that the strange and impossible can be real. She runs a website for the unexplained and tries to sift through the crazy conspiracy theories to find out what is - or might be - real. Detective Todd Carrow is a skeptic. Haunted by visions of brutal killings from a previous case, he sees the latest gruesome murders as nothing more than the actions of a madman targeting innocents. Helsing is convinced he's doing good, but what if vampires aren't real and Carrow is right?
Vampire hunter or serial killer? That depends on whether vampires exist . . . Simon Helsing believes the only way to stop a bad guy with fangs is a good guy with a stake. He has devoted his life to...

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We will consider requests from established bloggers, Acquisition and Collection Development Public Librarians and booksellers in the UK and USA. For Goodreads and Amazon reviewers, we will take into...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780727890535
PRICE US$34.99 (USD)
PAGES 256

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Average rating from 21 members


Featured Reviews

Famed science fiction and fantasy author Kevin J. Anderson makes an interesting diversion into the horror/crime arena with his latest novel, Stake.

Damaged war veteran ‘Simon Helsing’ thinks that he is waging a war against vampires. Colorado Springs detective Todd Carrow thinks that he has a serial killer on his hands who is targeting nighttime workers while they sleep during the day. Alexis Tarada runs a conspiracy theory website called HideTruth.com and thinks that both of them may be right. Meanwhile, a well organised group of survivalists are trying to keep below the radar in their hideaway camp in the forest and watching what is happening.

Kevin Anderson’s Stake is an enjoyable crime thriller that combines elements of the horror genre with that of the police detective novel. The idea of a modern day vampire hunter who may be inadvertently killing real people is quite clever, and Anderson grounds it sufficiently in the real world to make it work. It takes a little while for Anderson to put the various elements of his story in place, but once underway it moves quite smoothly and the ending offers some good action and suspense, and a couple of neat, if predictable, twists.

The highlight of the book is the character of Alexis Tarada, who, because of a childhood incident, desperately wants to believe that there is ‘something out there’ and has devoted her life to investigating the unexplained. She is a well developed and very engaging character and her website posts add some nice humour to the story. She is surprisingly level-headed and her actions drive much of the story in a believable manner. Thankfully, Anderson avoids developing her relationship with Detective Carrow in a cliched manner and instead gives her the opportunity to develop as a character. In fact, all the characters are well fleshed out and credible.

Anderson is an experienced and accomplished author and he knows how to keep the reader interested and entertained. He has a good understanding of the mild horror milieu from his time doing X-Files novelisations, and he is not afraid to make fun of some of the conventions.

Overall, Stake is a very entertaining tale that kept me happily engaged for several hours. Hopefully, there will be more Alexis and Carrow novels in the future .

Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for an electronic copy of the book.

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