Review: 'Vampire Seeker' by Tim O'Rourke

I am honoured to be part of the blog tour for the official release of Tim O'Rourke's Vampire Seeker. I have been very reluctant to read books about vampires after the massive hype around Twilight spawned a lot of bad books about vampires. Vampire Seeker was the book I chose to test the waters again.

Pub. Date: 16/01/2014
Publisher: Piatkus

Samantha Carter believes that a vampire is responsible for the brutal deaths of four women in Whitechapel, London, England. Each murder is identical to those committed a hundred years before by a very different serial killer. 

Desperate to prove the killer’s identity, Samantha follows him onto a late night tube train. But Samantha doesn’t reach the next station and finds herself on a very different journey, where she discovers vampires are very real and far more dangerous than she had ever imagined. To stay alive, Samantha needs to figure out why things have gone so terribly wrong for her – and more importantly, why she is out of time? 

‘Vampire Seeker’ is Book One in the Samantha Carter Series.

I am terribly ambiguous about this book. On the one hand there were a lot of things about Vampire Seeker which I couldn't stand. At times O'Rourke's writing was incredibly flippant. Samantha finds herself in a completely different time which must, to a 21st century woman, appear like a whole different world. Gender expectations were completely different and yet this is never something that is addressed. Samantha adapts to her surroundings surprisingly well, which almost feels too convenient a plot development to be fun. The contrast between the modern world and the past and how Samantha had really adapted that would have made for a great read but unfortunately I didn't get quite as much of that as I would've liked. At times I felt like jokes didn't quite hit their mark, although the action sequences and erotic scenes largely worked. The dialogue at times hit that strange point between being strangely realistic and therefore almost inane.

Books that use time-travel always have me slightly on edge. On the one hand I always find them fascinating because I love seeing how different authors approach the idea of different dimensions and of how the characters actions affect the future. I have read some books in which I simply couldn't stand it and Vampire Seeker wasn't one of those. Within the novel, the time travel sort of made sense. Why it was possible is something I'm hoping will be addressed in the sequel, Vampire Watchmen, but O'Rourke managed to avoid the major plotholes that seem to follow in the wake of time-travel. I also enjoyed the way he worked with the idea of solving crime through the centuries and across the continents. It was different and interesting and Jack the Ripper always makes for interesting reading.

I think the time has come that I admit to myself that vampire-fiction is something that doesn't entirely work for me. As I mentioned above, I often feel as if it is a genre that has been so over-exposed and over-used that it needs a few decennia to reinvent itself and bring some truly original back to it. Bram Stoker's Dracula was something completely new and innovative in 1897 and unfortunately a lot of today's paranormal fiction seems a rehash of the books that came previously. Vampire Seeker strikes me as a book that will be a lot of fun to those who are avid fans of the paranormal genre. It is funny, O'Rourke has clearly thought about his vampires and other paranormal characters, and it makes for very entertaining reading. I am at the stage with this genre where I hope for more depth, but that depends on your expectations when you go into a book.

I give this book...

2 Universes!

Although it will be great fun for genre enthousiasts, it wasn't exactly the read for me. If you're looking for a fun vampire read then I recommend Vampire Seeker with my whole heart! If you're looking for a paranormal read that challenges you a bit more then I recommend you look further.