I met the vampire Coburn last November when I read the excellent ‘Double Dead‘ (2011), a tale of a cynical vampire who having slept through the zombie apocalypse, wakes to find his food source is now an endangered species and he must turn shepherd if he wants to eat. I loved the book and thought Coburn was a wonderful creation. The novel reads like a standalone but Coburn was so vividly drawn and had gone through such traumatic changes, that I found myself wondering what he did next.

I guess Chuck Wendig must have wondered the same thing because, five years later, he answered the question by publishing ‘Bad Blood’. 

Sequels can be tricky things and the second book can often disappoint so I was delighted to find that ‘Bad Blood‘ wasn’t just a ‘further adventures of Coburn the Vampire’, reprising the best parts of ‘Double Dead‘. It was packed with new ideas and fascinating character development that extend the story arc and continue Coburn’s transformation from a cynical, jaded, loner predator into someone more purposeful and connected with the world. 

The novella also experiments successfully with form while retaining the kick-ass action, gritty humour and almost shamefaced pathos of the ‘Double Dead’.

For me, the cherry on the cake was T. Ryder Smith’s narration. His performance was extraordinary. Passionate and perfect. At points, it was so well done that I wanted to applaud.

If you enjoyed, ‘Double Dead’ I recommend visiting Coburn again in ‘Bad Blood’ but don’t start here or you’ll miss out on the context. Both books are available as audiobooks narrated by T. Ryder Smith in an omnibus called ‘The Complete Double Dead‘ published by Recorded Books