The Books of Carl Bowen

A cross-over novel between the Vampire: The Masquerade and Hunter: The Reckoning role-playing game settings, this is the first book of the six part Predator & Prey series. The story revolves around the vampire Michael Luther, who is devastated when his childe (someone who he made into a vampire) is killed. Luther then attempts to sift through the murky clan politics of the Kindred and find out what happened the night his childe died. So, boiled down to it's basics, this is a cross between a vampire novel, a murder mystery and a political thriller. It makes for a good read, with plenty of tension and a twist in the tail (where Luther finds out just how much he has been lied to) that brings the book to a satisfying end. However, despite all these good points, there were some things that caused problems for me. The first is a minor one; the blurb on the back cover talks about the Hunters and their mission to destroy their supernatural foes. I thought this sounded really exciting and was therefore disappointed to discover that the Hunters make no appearance in any shape or form. The other, far more major, issue is that I know absolutely nothing about either Vampire: The Masquerade or Hunter: The Reckoning. The author often assumes that the reader will have knowledge of the RPGs and therefore the book is full of references that just flew right over my head and that are never explained. Basically, this means that anyone (like me) who's not clued in about the gaming setting will not get nearly as much out of this book as someone who is. Nevertheless, this is a good supernatural thriller.