Second Sunrise : A Lee Nez Novel (Lee Nez)

Rating:
Summary: I didn't want it to end!
Review: I really enjoyed Second Sunrise. The premise of the book -- that of a half-vampire Navajo searching for the Nazi vampires that made him that way -- is so fun that when I heard about it I simply had to get this book and read it.

Thurlo and Thurlo don't disappoint. Instead of the slow and dreamy pacing of an Ann Rice vampire tome we get the clipped, staccato pace of a first rate detective story. When an attack happens it is over if you blink twice, and then the plot races on. There are some very scary and suspenseful scenes and some tender ones, too, building to a relentless finale with a twist I won't reveal here. It is a delicious twist and something you might see coming -- I didn't.

I hope to see further adventures from Lee Nez, and I'll definitely look up other titles from the Thurlos.

Rating:
Summary: Navajo Vampire Thriller
Review: The story has been outlined by several other reviewers. Lee Nez is a New Mexico state policeman, who happens to be a Navajo and steeped in Navajo lore. One night on patrol he has the terrible misfortune of being caught up in the ambush of a military convoy by a group of German spies (this is during World War II) trying to seize a shipment of weapons-grade plutonium. The leader of this operation is Hans Gruber (no relation to this reviewer) who--as it happens--is also a vampire. And the upshot of the whole episode is that Lee becomes at least a partial vampire--a walker of the night--doomed to a lonely life in which he will never die and must always be careful to avoid sunlight.

Fifty-some years later, now under the name Leonard Hawk, he is again a New Mexico state patrolman, and now the stage is set for a re-match with his nemesis, the evil German vampire, Gruber--who is now under the name Muller. And this time he is thrown in with an attractive female FBI agent, Diane Lopez, who will cause him to rethink his solitary existence. The adventure unfolds with lots of violence, supernatural creatures, bungling officials, obtuse Germans, and a hint of romance. So what happens? Will Lee survive? Will Lee and Diane get together? Will the Germans get the plutonium? Will the evil shapeshifters destroy the German vampires, or vice versa? You will just have to read it to find out.

This book requires a MAJOR suspension of disbelief. Even if you buy into Navajo vampires and shapeshifters who turn into animals, you still have a state patrolman who has to keep daubing himself with sunblock to get through the day and keeps containers of blood in his refrigerator for an emergency power snack. The book was fun and moved along quickly, but as others have mentioned, the dialogue was often stilted and hard to believe. Still if you're in the mood for something different, this little horror story might fill the bill. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber

Rating:
Summary: And I Thought It Would Never End!
Review: This book tumbled out of my hands and hit the floor about the point that the female FBI Agent and the female Vampire began to insult one another about their respective weights. That has to be a new low in vampire fiction. The other times the book fell out of my hands was because I could no longer keep my eyes open as Nez and Lopez have long pointless conversations with the occasional coy romantic comment. I think that the FBI agent who was killed early in the book got off easily compared to those of us who stayed to the end.

The authors cannot resist hopping on every new bandwagon that goes by, unfortunately they forget to get off the old bandwagons. Therefore, in this book we have a female FBI agent out to avenge her dead partner, skinwalkers (sort of Navaho Werewolves), German vampires, and a Navaho vampire state cop also out to avenge his dead partner (who was killed in 1945). All of the characters are one dimensional at best.

The skinwalkers are inherently evil and hunt vampires for no discernable purpose except the authors needed some action to propel the story to its next stage. The German vampires are equally purposeless except they want to get their hands on a case that might (no one really knows for sure) contain uranium or plutonium or something radioactive-- so much of this book is just two characters who have no facts engaging in fruitless speculation.

Let's not forget the writing. There is a lot of telling and not showing with strange moments of exposition that make me think that the authors had suddenly thought of something they should have mentioned earlier, so they jam it into the conversation whether it feels natural-- if any of the conversation in this book seems natural-- or not.

I think I should say something positive about the book, though. The dust jacket on the hard cover is rather clever and unusual. Shame it couldn't be on a better book.