Nightblood by T. Chris Martindale
Bullets versus bloodsuckers
A deadly Vietnam veteran with a murdered brother (who’s now a ghost) travels across the US seeking out and destroying evil paranormal entities of all persuasions.
It sounds like a pitch for a late-80s/early-90s TV show that feels like it would fit neatly in a lineup of pre-The X-Files American network TV shows à la Quantum Leap, The A-Team, and MacGyver. Indeed, Nightblood oozes that very specific milieu of action-heavy do-gooder populist entertainment.
Nightblood is like Lethal Weapon with vampires. It’s protagonist, Chris Stiles, is like Don Johnson with wooden stakes and silver bullets. The book is like Big Trouble in Small Town Indiana.
The episode — sorry, book — starts when Stiles’ brother, Alex, appears to him with the news that he’s detected a powerful supernatural entity in Isherwood, IN. So, in accordance with the show’s format — damn it, book — Stiles heads off for the town in the hopes that this is the big bad that caused Alex’s death and that avenging him will finally allow his poor deceased brother’s soul to rest in peace.
Yet when Stiles reached his destination, he discovers that what awaits him there is actually just an ancient vampire who until recently was locked away in the basement of an old mansion for decades. Now that he’s escaped, he’s raising a vampire army and feasting on the townsfolk. Naturally, Stiles being the hero of the show — eh, whatever — he hangs around and helps out.
Cue wave after wave of cheesy, over-the-top, grin-inducing action that absolutely screams early-90s American pop-culture. All it’s missing is Schwarzenegger yelling “Suck on this” as he fires a semi-automatic wooden stake gun at said vampire.
But it’s not just Stiles that takes the spotlight here. There are significant stretches of the novel that are devoted to the “guest stars” of Stiles’ show, such as the skeptic-cum-believer local police officer, or the two young brothers who were dared to spend the night in the spooky old house where the vampire was locked away.
These supporting characters might sound like tropes from our modern vantage point, but they feel genuine within the context of the novel and cutting away to them lends a sense of scope and gravity to the story which helps paint Isherwood as a real place and elevate the book beyond the presumptive limitations of its genre and paperback medium.
It also provides Stiles with a sense of mystique. Although we get some sense of who he is primarily through the actions he takes (as well as his interactions with Alex and a lengthy Vietnam flashback), by taking the focus off him, he’s portrayed as something of a wandering hero — an archetype recognizable from many a Western or, failing that, The Incredible Hulk TV show.
Nightblood is — for a horror paperback — a little on the dense side, with fairly long chapters, but despite that it is an easy read with plenty of action and just enough unexpected twists and turns to keep you on your toes.
As far as escapist entertainment goes, it satisfies. It’s a shame that this first novel of a projected series was the only one ever written. Someone should snatch up the film adaptation rights and turn Chris Stiles into the television action hero he was clearly always meant to be.