99 Coffins

David Wellington
Published by Allen & Unwin, 5 September 2008
RRP: $14.95 pb

Move over Buffy, vampire hunter, Laura Caxton is back in another gore-soaked adventure, with vampires and mortals fighting it out in a modern-day battle of Gettysburg.

Book two of Wellington’s Matt Reilly-style vampire series sees an excavated
Civil War tomb, containing 100 vampire caskets, eerily desecrated, leaving one coffin empty…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Wellington made a name for himself in the supernatural genre with his Monster Island trilogy, which broke out as an online serialized novel before it was published by Thunder's Mouth Press. It was recently optioned by screenwriter Stephen Susco (The Grudge).

“The hottest bad boys in contemporary fiction are cold-blooded vampires”
- USA TODAY.

Review
This is the second book in David Wellington’s Historical Vampire series. As with most other series, you really need to have read the first one for this to be fully understood and enjoyed. It would seem to be a tad confusing if you picked it up, thinking it was a stand alone novel.
The story continues with the heroine, Laura Caxton battling the shark-toothed vampires who tear chunks out of their victims, rather than leaving two neat puncture marks, (think 30 Day’s of Night vampires).

Wellington’s characters develop nicely in this sequel, drawing the reader into the world of Caxton and her boss, Arkeley, in an enticing and exciting narrative with witty and believable dialogue. The gloomy setting also adds to the atmosphere, along with the ferocious undead villans.

The currently-occurring story is nicely offset by historical pages that give the current situation meaning, setting mood, and foreshadowing. The non-stop action of 99 COFFINS makes it easy to get swept away straight for the ending. The book is actually quite thin and leaves the reader breathless--and wanting more.
The good thing about the current vampire fascination for fans of David’s series is that you can purchase all 4 novels in the series and read them from volume 1 to 4 now.