Vietnam vet Chris Stiles is on a mission to hunt down the monster that killed his brother Alex. Ever since he returned to the States from the war to discover Alex butchered in Central Park, he has vowed to hunt down not only his brother's killer but also any supernatural evil he finds. He is aided in his quest by Alex's ghost, who can sense evil and directs his brother to wherever there is trouble of the monstrous and/or supernatural variety.
One day, Alex sends Chris to the small town of Isherwood, Indiana. Isherwood has a local legend concerning the Danner family. Supposedly, Sebastian Danner murdered his twin brother Nathan as well as his (Sebastian's) wife Lyn Anne after Nathan returned from a lengthy trip to Europe, and the Danner estate has lain cursed ever since. Brothers Delbert (he prefers "Del") and Bart Miller are dared by their "friend" Tommy Lawrence to go spend a night in the old Danner mansion. They accidentally set free (what they think is) Sebastian Danner, revealed as having become a vampire, and are saved when Stiles shows up and shoots the vampire. A lot. Danner crawls away crippled, and Stiles whisks the boys home to their mother Billie, with whom he hopes to begin a romantic relationship now that Danner is dead.
Except it isn't that simple. Although in Stiles' experience, vampires do not regenerate upon being injured and retain the damage inflicted upon them, it seems the recently awakened Mr. Danner is a special case, as Tommy and some other boys, hoping to scare Del and Bart, find out to their misfortune when they hop the fence onto the Danner property. Before Stiles knows it, Isherwood is experiencing a plague of the bloodthirsty undead. He must rally the townsfolk to fight off the vampire hordes.
It was originally going to be titled Shadow War and was intended as the first in a series of books about the adventures of "Chris Stiles, Ghost Breaker" before Martindale gave writing after doing three more (unrelated) novels. The book, long out of print since its only edition back in 1990, finally saw a reprint after being featured in Paperbacks from Hell.
Tropes used in this novel:
- Always Identical Twins: The Danner Brothers. The only way to tell them apart is that Nathan has a scar and Sebastian doesn't, which comes in handy when figuring out which brother it is the heroes are dealing with.
- Anyone Can Die: Bart Miller gets killed by the vampires.
- Detect Evil: This is Alex Stiles' main ability as a ghost. He can sense where evil is and set his brother on the path to confront and defeat it.
- Dragon Their Feet: Town Marshal "Dutch" Larson, after being turned, is the closest thing Nathan Danner has to a right-hand man, and outlives his master by several pages. Stiles finally kills him as he's trying to prey upon a convenience store cashier.
- Genre Savvy: The Miller Brothers. Del and Bart watch a lot of horror movies and (think) they know all about vampires. However, Stiles tells them that most fictional depictions of vampires are inaccurate based on his experiences. However, this is before he discovers that, unlike other vampires, the escaped Danner can heal himself.
- Greater-Scope Villain: "The Enemy" (as Stiles calls the monster that killed his brother) nor the European vampire who originally turned Nathan Danner.
- Groin Attack: During the battle in the street outside Steve's house, Stiles shoots Danner in the junk, likely as payback for the vampire trying to force him to drink blood from his penis earlier. Danner fully heals later, shot off dick and all.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: For most of the book, the Danner brother released by Del and Bart is thought to be Sebastian Danner, but it turns out it's actually Nathan Danner, who sports a cross-shaped scare on one cheek.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Near the end of the book, Stiles obtains an Imperial Japanese katana taken as a souvenir by a World War II veteran. He takes quite a liking to it and uses it to kill Larson in the final chapter.
- Kill It with Fire: Sebastian Danner sets himself and his twin brother on fire. Although he dies instantly, Nathan manages to last long enough to take on Stiles one final time, and as the fight rages on he's gradually reduced to a flaming living skeleton that keeps moving on pure fury and hatred alone before finally collapsing.
- Our Vampires Are Different: There are two types:
- The "regular" vampires. They're mostly just mindless creatures unable to control theor bloodlust and who kill at random, though a few retain memories of their human lives as well as their original personalities (such as Dutch Larson and Tommy and his friends). And they do not heal after taking damage. They can be shot to pieces and keep crawling. Even staking them through the heart often isn't enough to entirely kill them, as evidenced when Danner (temporarily) saves the (un)life of Steve, a vampire Stiles had staked, by simply pulling the stake free; Steve just gets back up like nothing happened.
- The "master" vampires, of which Stiles only learns about two, Danner and the vampire who sired him. These vampires more closely resemble the classical idea of a vampire, being capable of mesmerizing victims and healing after almost any injury short of a stake through the heart or decapitation (or, as Danner finds out, being set on fire).
- Police Are Useless: Except for Charlie Bean, all the Isherwood cops are either corrupt or incompetent. Marshal Larson being the nastiest example, as he's a Small-Town Tyrant who engages in a lot of nepotism. Unable to properly handle the undead hordes, all the cops except for Charlie quickly end up as snacks and then rise as vampires themselves.
- Save the Day, Turn Away: Stiles elects to leave Isherwood at the end rather than stay with Billie.
- Smug Snake: Danner. For all his preening about how superior he is to his foe, he sustains a lot of humiliating injuries, defeats and setbacks at the hands of Stiles, due to the latter's use of guerilla warfare and Danner's unfamiliarity with it.
- Taking You with Me: Attempted by the elderly Sebastian Danner against his brother. He pretends to reconcile with him only to set them both on fire. It falls. At first. Unable to put himself out, Nathan does eventually succumb to the flames and perish in his final fight with Stiles.
- Undead Child: Several, but particularly Tommy and his friends after Danner gets done with them.
- The Unfought: Neither the creature that killed Alex in Central Park (referred to throughout as "The Enemy") nor the vampire who turned Nathan Danner years ago are ever confronted.
- Villains Blend in Better: Averted. Nathan Danner, although he is aware that he needs to learn about the ways of the modern world, finds so much of it overwhelming and incomprehensible. For example, modern rock music confuses and irritates him, and although he really finds that he enjoys TV, he has difficulty understanding how it works. About the most he manages to do is (barely) learn how to drive a car.
- Would Hurt a Child: Danner spends the first several minutes of his newfound freedom trying his best to murder the two boys who accidentally freed him. Made all the more unpleasant given the somewhat sexual, Depraved Homosexual undertones of his dialogue, which makes it sounds less like he wants to bite them and more like he wants to rape them. Although he fails, he does manage to get ahold of Tommy Lawrence and co. Later, several of Isherwood's other children are turned as well, and Bart is even killed by the vampires in front of Del's eyes.
