Nightblood
Review by Davis Farnsworth, submitted on 29-Jul-1991

_Nightblood_ by T. Chris Martindale. Published in paperback by Warner Books, Inc. Copyright 1990, First Edition 1990.

A Viet Nam Vet uses his training to battle vampires in a rural Indiana town. He has been drawn there by the ghost of his brother who was suddenly and viciously murdered in New York's Central Park, and who now leads him around the United States to find and conquer Evil Presences. The brother helps him some, but not very much, in the battle (and it's quite a battle) against the vampires.

This book also has two classes of vampires. Anyone who dies from the bite of a vampire rises again as a vampire (unless properly killed, of course), but there is also a Master Vampire who is considerably more astute and much better able to control his Blood Hunger. He is also pretty openly gay, although he will bite any neck. None of the vampires do any shapeshifting or turn into mists, but they are very strong and cowed by religious symbols (if the one brandishing the symbol has sufficient faith).

If you liked _Salem's_Lot_ I think you will like this one too. It is quite suspenseful and the personality of the main character is quite interesting. I did not find it predictable, and the jungle war skills of the main character added unusual dimension to a vampire story. It is more violent and more sexually explicit than _Vampire_Notes_. A bit more violent and sexually explicit than _Salem's_Lot_,and a lot more violent and sexually explicit than Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.