Last Cull: Third Shift, Book 2

Third Shift #2

by D.S. Ritter

Sam's job sucks. And it's about to get worse.

After witnessing a bloody assault, parking attendant Sam is drawn into a world she never knew existed, a world of secrets and darkness. A world of vampires.

A threat lurks on the horizon for those bent on keeping peace between the living and the living dead.

Just when Sam thought she was done with monsters, something new is coming, and even worse, John, the cowardly magician, is back in town.

Can she find the source of this new violence? Will her friends save the city’s nightlife, or will they become a part of it?

Find out in...Last Cull, the exciting sequel to Cthulhu's Car Park.

Audible Audio

Published November 12, 2019

Reviews

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

_Last Cull_ by D.S. Ritter is book two in her Third Shift series, a three volume ebook series focusing on Sam (an attendant in a parking garage in Ann Arbor, Michigan) and her friends saving the world from monsters. In book one, _Cthulhu's Car Park_, Sam and her friends stop an invasion of cosmic horrors erupting from under Sam’s place of work, parking garage Seven-One. In _Last Cull_, set a year later, Sam and her friends have to save Ann Arbor from a civil war between local vampire covens, or rather preventing an aggressive vampire coven from moving in and destroying the local resident vampires as well as being a danger to the local humans, as the resident vampires had played nice with humans and not preyed on them.

Ritter develops the lore of the setting more, not only introducing vampires but also developing the magic and other players, as well as shows some character growth for Sam. The style of the story continues to be something akin to the John Dies at the End series by David Wong (Jason Pargin) meets _Horrorstör_ by Grady Hendrix, still horror and with lots of action but with humor and meta references

I enjoyed the action, the descriptions, and Ritter’s take on various vampire myths, legends, tropes, and pop culture treatments. A quick read at 105 pages.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy of this book from the author at no cost.

I am not a fan of vampire-as-tortured-soul teen romance books, and clearly neither is D.S. Ritter. In this sequel to Cthulhu's Carpark, we see unlikely heroine Sam continue to try to save the world, this time doing battle against blood suckers who come in all varieties -- from overly-hair-gelled club rats, to delicate snowflakes concerned that no one is taking their identity politics seriously. Ritter manages to poke fun at some of the sillier vampire tropes while still delivering a tense story that had me turning pages and getting chills. In addition, she introduces her own clever elements of vampire lore that add depth and danger to the story.

Just as in the first book in the series, the action centers on a group of friends who all work together at a carpark company in Michigan. They not only have to battle monsters, they also have to deal with clueless management and rude customers. The world-ending dangers set against this mundane backdrop of what seems like the worst job ever gives this series a delightful farcical quality. Yet, even though I was laughing out loud at many parts of Last Cull, the action and danger are what really drive this book.

For a quick, fun, sardonic, yet creepy read, this book delivers in spades. Highly recommend! I'll leave you with this quote: "But they'd saved the world together; returning her texts was the least he could do."