23 Hours

A Vengeful Vampire Tale

By: David Wellington

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

In the next 23 hours, there will be no reprieve, no mercy, and no time off for good behavior.

When vampire hunter Laura Caxton is locked up in a maximum-security prison, the cop-turned-con finds herself surrounded by countless murderers and death-row inmates with nothing to lose and plenty of time to kill.

Caxton’s always been able to watch her own back—even when it’s against a cell-block wall. But soon she learns that an even greater threat has slithered behind the bars to join her. Justinia Malvern, the world’s oldest living vampire, has taken up residence, and her strength grows by the moment as she raids the inmate population like an all-you-can-drink open bar of fresh blood. The crafty old vampire knows just how to pull Caxton’s strings, too, and she's issued an ultimatum that Laura can’t refuse. Now Laura has just 23 hours to fight her way through a gauntlet of vampires, cons, and killers.

©2009 David Wellington (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Smooth….Wellington's deadpan humor enlivens the satirical goth-gore proceedings as Laura battles the half-dead and their evil leader.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“Strange as it may seem, the key to good supernatural fiction is realism. Readers have to believe in the world that has been created in order to suspend their disbelief of the creatures set loose in it, and Wellington excels here….This could easily have dissolved into B-movie stereotype but instead seems intensely researched and utterly believable. The characters are likewise fully formed and consistent….Wellington's voice continues to grow. Highly recommended for horror and vampire fiction fans.” ( Library Journal)

This LBGTQ hero is a must read or listen

The hero is noted today as LBGTQ. The story is a well-told and different take on a vampire story. No ruffles, no dating the food, and living forever has an increased cost in blood. Unfortunately, this isn't the last book in the series. The final book, 32 Teeth, has never been recorded as an audiobook. That book closes out a wonderful series.

Good story and series, bad action sequences.

I definitely enjoy the structure and tone of these stories in this series. My biggest gripe is that the police don’t talk like police, the military people, what few of them there are, don’t talk like military people. I know it’s nitpicky, the writer is very talented And the stories are very original. For me, unfortunately, the smaller details like that matter when it comes to suspension of disbelief and complete immersion in the story. The voice of the narrator is wonderful, she does a great job.