Hunter of the Dead by Stephen Kozeniewski
Sinister Grin Press (August 2016)
402 pages; $17.59 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
Hunter of the Dead is a sprawling, epic tale of vampire houses, the Inquisitors who seek to destroy them, and the one both vampires and Inquisitors fear the most, simply known as The Hunter.
Kozeniewski wastes no time setting the bloody tone for the tale which follows. I have never read anything like this. At times mesmerizing and breathtaking, Hunter of the Dead is every bit as entertaining as The Strain, but dissimilar in many ways. Multiple story-lines are woven together in a complex tapestry of blood and violence. No sparkly vampires here, these undead are definitely hardcore.
My intellect tells me there is no chance that The Hunter of the Dead has emerged from centuries of sleep. That he disappeared all those years ago. But my heart screams out that he is back. And if he is, then, yes, mankind and immortals both are in existential danger. He is vicious, soulless, relentless. A killing machine without mercy, without fear. He destroys the undying the same way a man swats a fly. He is indestructible. And he is very, very real.
It there are any negatives with Hunter of the Dead it would be in the way the story moves from the past to the present and back again, which I did find a bit tricky to follow, but overall, Hunter of the Dead is a read that is well worth your time.
