If you were undead, you’d be home by now…
They call it Deadtown: the city’s quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Most humans stay far from its borders-but Victory Vaughn, Boston’s only professional demon slayer, isn’t exactly human.
I read Nancy Holzner’s short story ‘The End Of Eternity‘ in the ‘Apocalyptic‘ anthology and decided to look for more of her work. I checked out her novels and bought ‘Deadtown‘ when I read the opening paragraph:
“TWO RULES I LIVE BY: NEVER ADMIT TO BEING A shapeshifter on a first, second, or third date with a human. And never, ever bring along a zombie apprentice wannabe on a demon kill.”
‘Deadtown’ is the first book in a six-book series starring Victory Vaughn, a Cerddorion (Welsh shapeshifters) and the only professional demonslayer in an alternative Boston where everyone is aware of the existence of vampires, werewolves and zombies but most people don’t believe they should have any rights.
The opening of ‘Deadtown’ was fast, slick and original, I slipped straight into the story and was hungry to learn more about Victory and her world. I loved the idea of a section of Boston being quarantined as a Disaster Enclosure Area (DED) because of a zombie plague and then becoming known as Deadtown, where all the non-humans are made to live.
I was surprised and pleased when, six chapters in, the pace changed as we slipped back into Victory’s childhood and started to learn how she became who she is. It was good to know that there was going to be more to the story than sass, flash and supernaturals. Victory’s motives for killing demons are personal. Her family has been feuding with a lethal Hellion demon for generations and Victory is determined to be the one to kill it.
I liked that, rather than having academic discussion about the politics of rights for supernaturals, Nancy Holzner made the impact personal by showing law enforcement’s indifference when Victory’s young neice, who may or may not be classified as human when she reaches puberty, is threatened.
I liked the originality and the depth of the lore in ‘Deadtown‘. There’s a lot of detail on the types of demons that Victory slays. Most of them are dream demons, Eidolons, Drudes and Harpies. I loved the Harpies. Truly fearsome, loathsome things, who live to torment. The zombies in ‘Deadtown‘ are also quite different from the ‘Walking Dead‘ variety because they have a very different origin. One of my favourite characters is Tina, a teen zombie who begs to become Victory’s apprentice. Tina is a lot of fun and teaching her is a great means of passing on demonology details without the need for ugly infodumps.
The plot was pleasingly complicated, with links to Victory’s clients, her family, her (vampire) roommate and the two males in her life, a werewolf lawyer specialising in legal rights for supernaturals and a detective investigating bizarre deaths that seem to be caused by a Hellion demon. The last quarter of the book was tense and exciting. There was so much going on and so little time left that I worried I was heading for a cliffhanger ending but the plot was cleverer than that and delivered an unexpected but satisfying ending.
I’m hooked now. I don’t know how I missed this series when it came out back in 2009 but I’ve already set about remedying the ommission, book two, ‘Hellforged‘ is already in my TBR pile.
Nancy Holzner grew up in western Massachusetts with her nose stuck in a book. This meant that she tended to walk into things, wore glasses before she was out of elementary school, and forced her parents to institute a “no reading at the dinner table” rule. It was probably inevitable that she majored in English in college and then, because there were still a lot of books she wanted to read, continued her studies long enough to earn a masters degree and a Ph.D.
She began her career as a medievalist, then jumped off the tenure track to try some other things. Besides teaching English and philosophy, she’s worked as a technical writer, freelance editor and instructional designer, college admissions counselor, and corporate trainer.
Nancy lives in upstate New York with her husband Steve, where they both work from home without getting on each others nerves. She enjoys visiting local wineries and listening obsessively to opera. There are still a lot of books she wants to read.
Mike Finn's Fiction 