What do you think?
Rate this book
Vampires of the Plains #2
Blood Tells True
Jessica has been hunting vampires since one of them killed her family a year ago. It’s not enough for her just to kill them, though. She likes to lock them in her silo and force them to fight against each other. Then she can fight the strongest one and prove that she is better than the bloodsucking monsters.
Then one night, Jessica’s super vampire escapes. She tracks it to the town of Krendel, but she is totally unprepared for what she finds. Because Krendel has a unique vampire situation, and Jessica is about to find herself in the fight of her life.
The vampire mythology in Blood Tells True is unique. The vampires are more like zombies than traditional vampires in that they are mindless animals attacking anyone they come across, though of course they want blood instead of brains. However, vampires who are on meth do not experience the same mental degradation as other vampires.
Then one night, Jessica’s super vampire escapes. She tracks it to the town of Krendel, but she is totally unprepared for what she finds. Because Krendel has a unique vampire situation, and Jessica is about to find herself in the fight of her life.
The vampire mythology in Blood Tells True is unique. The vampires are more like zombies than traditional vampires in that they are mindless animals attacking anyone they come across, though of course they want blood instead of brains. However, vampires who are on meth do not experience the same mental degradation as other vampires.
194 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 23, 2011
2 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 29, 2025
I did not quite enjoy this as much as Burden. I felt like there was more potential to the storyline from Burden, but this one went a little differently than I expected. It was still a decent vampire story, and I'm rating it as 3.5/5.0, and rounding up.
August 6, 2017
I wondered how this would carry on, after basically everyone died in Burden Kansas. But I have to say, Alan Ryker managed just fine. As good as could be hoped for, at least, with my favorite & former MC very noticeably missing in action. (Well actually he's dead. Not missing. But in a story with vampires, who's to say who's really dead for good and who might make another appearance...) Nah that's just wishful thinking but either way, niece Jessica carried the second part of this story along just fine. And as someone who is a harsh critic of female heroines, that means a lot.
Despite being almost more of a novella than a novel (a lil short of 200pages) I have to say this is me favorite vampire story I've come across. I'm not exactly the world's largest vampire geek/fan/lover but I've read my fair share and this one stands out. The descriptions of the vampires I thought were great, scary and creepy with just the right amount of ewww. And I hate it when the scary monsters in my books (or tv shows) are simply monstrous & not particularly smart or fast (ie slow brainless zombies who are loudly & laboriously huffing and puffing at .01 miles an hour yet are somehow able to surprise & kill their much smarter, quicker human counterparts) I loved these vamps being so powerful & dangerous. The great vampy characters present in the first part were just as great and just as vampy in part II. I liked it all only slightly less than the first part, but one might be able to cop that to my catty bratty preference for male leads.
Being one of the few books I've now read on my kindle, & considering all the things I've chosen to read on here have been pretty great, I'm sorta starting to develop a bit of an....affinity let's call it, for my reading device. Could it be?!?! The world's biggest anti kindle?!
Nah. Not quite! But moving oh so slowly in that direction.
Despite being almost more of a novella than a novel (a lil short of 200pages) I have to say this is me favorite vampire story I've come across. I'm not exactly the world's largest vampire geek/fan/lover but I've read my fair share and this one stands out. The descriptions of the vampires I thought were great, scary and creepy with just the right amount of ewww. And I hate it when the scary monsters in my books (or tv shows) are simply monstrous & not particularly smart or fast (ie slow brainless zombies who are loudly & laboriously huffing and puffing at .01 miles an hour yet are somehow able to surprise & kill their much smarter, quicker human counterparts) I loved these vamps being so powerful & dangerous. The great vampy characters present in the first part were just as great and just as vampy in part II. I liked it all only slightly less than the first part, but one might be able to cop that to my catty bratty preference for male leads.
Being one of the few books I've now read on my kindle, & considering all the things I've chosen to read on here have been pretty great, I'm sorta starting to develop a bit of an....affinity let's call it, for my reading device. Could it be?!?! The world's biggest anti kindle?!
Nah. Not quite! But moving oh so slowly in that direction.
January 24, 2013
Ryker expands his canvas for the follow up to Burden, Kansas---which was excellent. With the survivors from the first tale he takes the show on up the road a bit and involves a neighboring community that has a different sort of vampire problem. New characters add life to the story and moving the vampire up the evolutionary scale a bit make for a compelling story line.
Well written, great characters, told with a sense of the rapid pace that a story of this type requires, and you have a very good vampire/vampire slayer novel. Alan Ryker, who just added to his reputation with the excellent novel The Hoard, is one of the new crew of top notch dark fiction writers.
Well written, great characters, told with a sense of the rapid pace that a story of this type requires, and you have a very good vampire/vampire slayer novel. Alan Ryker, who just added to his reputation with the excellent novel The Hoard, is one of the new crew of top notch dark fiction writers.
March 18, 2014
My spastic, random and insane musings on Blood Tells True Ryker's second novella in the Vampires on the Plains series.
I fell in a confused state of creeped out love with Ryker whilst reading Burden Kansas, the first in this series. That love was reaffirmed by Hoard and now once again by Blood Tells True.
Please note: If you have any interest in this series and have not read Burden Kansas stop now, you have been warned. There are spoilers ahead!!
This novella is set once again in the world of cowboys and ranchers. In rural Kansas we catch up with Jessica, Keith's hard ass ex druggie niece, and her vigilante attempt to rid the cow country of the vampire plague.
This novella feels a bit more contrived than its predecessor, Jessica wreaks a bit of Buffy meets Zoe - from Firefly, but not in a blind rip off way. More likely he simply boiled the characteristics of Keith over to Jessica, who is his niece and notably rather like him, and owing to the rarity of females portrayed in this kind of role I drew my above conclusions. Who knows?!
I liked that Jessica picked up where Keith left off, in fact I would argue that Jessica was an even less sympathetic character than Keith. Rather than coping out behind womanly wiles, Ryker maintains his western Vampire charm within cruelty here and I adore him for it!
I fell in a confused state of creeped out love with Ryker whilst reading Burden Kansas, the first in this series. That love was reaffirmed by Hoard and now once again by Blood Tells True.
Please note: If you have any interest in this series and have not read Burden Kansas stop now, you have been warned. There are spoilers ahead!!
This novella is set once again in the world of cowboys and ranchers. In rural Kansas we catch up with Jessica, Keith's hard ass ex druggie niece, and her vigilante attempt to rid the cow country of the vampire plague.
This novella feels a bit more contrived than its predecessor, Jessica wreaks a bit of Buffy meets Zoe - from Firefly, but not in a blind rip off way. More likely he simply boiled the characteristics of Keith over to Jessica, who is his niece and notably rather like him, and owing to the rarity of females portrayed in this kind of role I drew my above conclusions. Who knows?!
I liked that Jessica picked up where Keith left off, in fact I would argue that Jessica was an even less sympathetic character than Keith. Rather than coping out behind womanly wiles, Ryker maintains his western Vampire charm within cruelty here and I adore him for it!
January 23, 2012
After finishing Burden Kansas (Vampires of the Plains), I couldn't help myself. I had to continue on right away with part two of the series Blood Tells True. To be honest, at first I didn't see where the author could take the story, but he was able to continue it on in a believable way.
**HERE THERE BE SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T READ BURDEN KANSAS**
Jessica is the sole survivor in her family. She exists now solely to track down and kill any vampires she can find. In fact, she likes to track them and practice fighting them to hone her skills. Unfortunately, one escapes. The story continues with her efforts to find the escapee which leads her to, of course, more vampires.
The action scenes are very well written and Jessica is a well fleshed out character, but we are not spared the fact that Jessica's life is rather empty. She has no one, no family, no friends, no one. She's lonely, stubborn and a complete BADASS.
I don't like to go to far into the plot with reviews because I, as a reader, don't like that. I like to discover the story for myself. I will say that I didn't like this story quite as much as I liked Burden, but definitely enough so that I will be onboard for the next installment of the series
**HERE THERE BE SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T READ BURDEN KANSAS**
Jessica is the sole survivor in her family. She exists now solely to track down and kill any vampires she can find. In fact, she likes to track them and practice fighting them to hone her skills. Unfortunately, one escapes. The story continues with her efforts to find the escapee which leads her to, of course, more vampires.
The action scenes are very well written and Jessica is a well fleshed out character, but we are not spared the fact that Jessica's life is rather empty. She has no one, no family, no friends, no one. She's lonely, stubborn and a complete BADASS.
I don't like to go to far into the plot with reviews because I, as a reader, don't like that. I like to discover the story for myself. I will say that I didn't like this story quite as much as I liked Burden, but definitely enough so that I will be onboard for the next installment of the series
December 16, 2012
Blood Tells True is an admirably direct follow-up to Burden, Kansas, in which we rejoin Jessica Harris roughly a year after the events of the first novel. As with the first book, it's characterised by an inexorable building dread that culminates in weighty, explosive violence.
It doesn't feel like an entirely organic sequel, in that it seems as though it was produced in response to the success of the first novel. And it doesn't have quite the same arresting bite (a-ha) as the first book, the circular thematic arc and similarity of Jessica to Keith feels a little contrived when compared to the more "holistic" feel of the first book.
It does, however, put all the right tabs into the right slots, have excellent set-ups/pay-offs and the jury is still out on whether or not the author is a terrible person. Which, after two books where drug dealers are inhuman monsters, is a bit of an achievement.
All in all, not as good as the first, but still head and shoulders above 90% of the vampire books out there.
It doesn't feel like an entirely organic sequel, in that it seems as though it was produced in response to the success of the first novel. And it doesn't have quite the same arresting bite (a-ha) as the first book, the circular thematic arc and similarity of Jessica to Keith feels a little contrived when compared to the more "holistic" feel of the first book.
It does, however, put all the right tabs into the right slots, have excellent set-ups/pay-offs and the jury is still out on whether or not the author is a terrible person. Which, after two books where drug dealers are inhuman monsters, is a bit of an achievement.
All in all, not as good as the first, but still head and shoulders above 90% of the vampire books out there.
February 4, 2025
A year later and Jessica is doing what you expect after the first book. The setting and the vampires change. It’s not as good as the first book, but it was still very enjoyable.
Song: Never Dawn by Lacuna Coil
Song: Never Dawn by Lacuna Coil
February 15, 2012
Alan Ryker has become one of my all time favorite authors. His characters are some of the more 'realistic' people I've ever read. The people he writes about make sense to me given the circumstances they are faced with, as well as the type of life they have lived.
The fact that Alan Ryker writes Horror, Speculative Fiction and Urban Fantasy adds to my enjoyment all the more.
Blood Tells True is the continuing story of Jessica Harris, first introduced to us in Burden Kansas, a most brilliant "Vampire-Western" that propelled Alan into my "Authors Are Rock Stars Hall of Fame".
Jessica has lost her entire family to vampires. At just seventeen she has assumed the role of avenger and protector to a community which shuns her and is unaware that vampires exist. She has become hard, as hard as her uncle had been when he confronted these creatures. As hard as he had been in life. A loner with a brittle disposition that kept the small community at arms length and just as suspicious of him as they now are of Jessica.
Positive that Jessica was in some way involved with the tragedy that befell her family, even the seedy element in town are speculating. When a drug dealer with a grudge comes to town he vows to eliminate Jessica as a possible threat to him and his dealings.
What follows is a series of actions taken by this dealer and Jessica herself that threatens even more lives and Jessica knows that she is the only one that can stop the inevitable carnage.
The vampires are ugly, animalistic, and brutal. They are unorganized and avoid other vampires. They do not seek out high school girls to seduce nor do they 'blend' in with society to amass wealth and be thought of as handsome, beautiful and mysterious. They are freaks, monsters and without conscience.
Jessica is not a cute and curvacious coed who finds herself developing super strength and paranormal powers in which to fulfill a romantic destiny. Instead she is angry, guilt-ridden and obsessed with the slaughter of these creatures and is becoming sadistic as she begins to enjoy the challenge and thrill of the kill.
Blood Tells True is an all out showdown at sundown between a girl and a pack of remorseless monsters. Clint Eastwood with a ponytail versus vamps who do not shop at Old Navy, unless the salesgirl smells good.
Book Summary: One year ago, vampires killed Jessica Harris’s entire family, compelling her to become a vampire hunter in order to protect the small farming community that hates her.
Six months ago, a meth dealer put a price on Jessica’s head.
Two days ago, a hit-gone-wrong released a vampire more powerful than Jessica has ever known. A vampire she created.
Today, in pursuing her monster across the Kansas prairie, Jessica uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to wipe an entire town out of existence.
Tonight, she fights.
In his gritty Vampires of the Plains series, Alan Ryker takes vampires out of the cities and places them on the sun-bleached western prairie. Blood Tells True continues the Harris family saga begun in Burden Kansas, but is a complete tale that can be enjoyed on its own.
Review for Burden Kansas: http://novelopinion.org/2011/06/18/bu...
The fact that Alan Ryker writes Horror, Speculative Fiction and Urban Fantasy adds to my enjoyment all the more.
Blood Tells True is the continuing story of Jessica Harris, first introduced to us in Burden Kansas, a most brilliant "Vampire-Western" that propelled Alan into my "Authors Are Rock Stars Hall of Fame".
Jessica has lost her entire family to vampires. At just seventeen she has assumed the role of avenger and protector to a community which shuns her and is unaware that vampires exist. She has become hard, as hard as her uncle had been when he confronted these creatures. As hard as he had been in life. A loner with a brittle disposition that kept the small community at arms length and just as suspicious of him as they now are of Jessica.
Positive that Jessica was in some way involved with the tragedy that befell her family, even the seedy element in town are speculating. When a drug dealer with a grudge comes to town he vows to eliminate Jessica as a possible threat to him and his dealings.
What follows is a series of actions taken by this dealer and Jessica herself that threatens even more lives and Jessica knows that she is the only one that can stop the inevitable carnage.
The vampires are ugly, animalistic, and brutal. They are unorganized and avoid other vampires. They do not seek out high school girls to seduce nor do they 'blend' in with society to amass wealth and be thought of as handsome, beautiful and mysterious. They are freaks, monsters and without conscience.
Jessica is not a cute and curvacious coed who finds herself developing super strength and paranormal powers in which to fulfill a romantic destiny. Instead she is angry, guilt-ridden and obsessed with the slaughter of these creatures and is becoming sadistic as she begins to enjoy the challenge and thrill of the kill.
Blood Tells True is an all out showdown at sundown between a girl and a pack of remorseless monsters. Clint Eastwood with a ponytail versus vamps who do not shop at Old Navy, unless the salesgirl smells good.
Book Summary: One year ago, vampires killed Jessica Harris’s entire family, compelling her to become a vampire hunter in order to protect the small farming community that hates her.
Six months ago, a meth dealer put a price on Jessica’s head.
Two days ago, a hit-gone-wrong released a vampire more powerful than Jessica has ever known. A vampire she created.
Today, in pursuing her monster across the Kansas prairie, Jessica uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to wipe an entire town out of existence.
Tonight, she fights.
In his gritty Vampires of the Plains series, Alan Ryker takes vampires out of the cities and places them on the sun-bleached western prairie. Blood Tells True continues the Harris family saga begun in Burden Kansas, but is a complete tale that can be enjoyed on its own.
Review for Burden Kansas: http://novelopinion.org/2011/06/18/bu...
February 17, 2012
Blood Tells True is the second book in Alan Ryker's Vampires of the Plains series. I absolutely loved the first book, Burden Kansas, but I liked Blood Tells True even more. After a horrendous experience in the first book, Jessica, the female MC, and now resident vamp killer, returns in full force. When I first read the description for the book I have to admit I thought to myself "no, please not another Buffy character." That fear was quickly squashed in the opening chapter. Just like the first book in the series, there's plenty of action and Jessica comes alive on the pages. I don't read many books with a female lead. Not that I'm against them, because I'm not. It just worked out that way because of the authors that I frequently read don't use many female MCs. It was actually refreshing to read a book from a female's POV. Ryker dd a fabulous job tapping into the female psyche.
Just like Burden Kansas, the writing is crisp and to the point. I actually believe the writing is a bit better in this second book, which is what's supposed to happen. Ryker's prose, like all beginning novelists, is evolving and expanding and I'm excited to watch it as it does.
As we follow Jessica as she crosses the plains to do what she does best, which is kill vamps, I was surprised at how many sub-plots Ryker manged to add to the story. Which is another sign of him evolving as a writer. This book is more complex than the first book. Ryker even manages to add some differing POVs, which I think is a brave thing for a young writer to attempt, just because it's difficult to pull off without confusing the reader. Fortunately, that didn't happen. He pulled it off seamlessly, and I for one, enjoyed the differing POVs from time to time.
At the end of the day this is a great book by a great writer. The vamps are scary, our heroine is a badass. You really can't ask for more.
Just like Burden Kansas, the writing is crisp and to the point. I actually believe the writing is a bit better in this second book, which is what's supposed to happen. Ryker's prose, like all beginning novelists, is evolving and expanding and I'm excited to watch it as it does.
As we follow Jessica as she crosses the plains to do what she does best, which is kill vamps, I was surprised at how many sub-plots Ryker manged to add to the story. Which is another sign of him evolving as a writer. This book is more complex than the first book. Ryker even manages to add some differing POVs, which I think is a brave thing for a young writer to attempt, just because it's difficult to pull off without confusing the reader. Fortunately, that didn't happen. He pulled it off seamlessly, and I for one, enjoyed the differing POVs from time to time.
At the end of the day this is a great book by a great writer. The vamps are scary, our heroine is a badass. You really can't ask for more.
May 15, 2013
It's been a year or so since I read the first book in this series so I went back and reread it and it was just as good the second time. The second book, LOVE IT. The story continues with Jessica picking up where her uncle left off and she has become quite the vampire hunter. Lots of good action and excellent story and makes for a very enjoyable read. Great way to spend an afternoon in the sun and look forward to any further in the series!
September 20, 2014
This sequel to Burden Kansas was a good vampire story but I have to give the nod to the first book. I would recommend both but this book was missing something. Huge spoiler btw so don't read it if you haven't read the first.
April 1, 2012
Another winner. This story begins where the last one left off and is action packed.
It grabs you from the start and doesn't let go. Cannot wait until the next book.
It grabs you from the start and doesn't let go. Cannot wait until the next book.
August 15, 2015
A touch longer then the first and still good. The ending portion could have been a bit longer but still a good read for sure.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews