First Kill: A Dave Carver Novella

by Andrew Dudek

Dave Carver is a teenager when his mother is brutally killed, exposing him to the dark side of the world he thought he knew. Almost immediately he is plucked out of his normal life and exposed to the dark magic that exists beneath the streets of New York City. Together with a small group of determined teenagers, Dave confronts the twisted, brutal reality of vampires and black magic, and faces off against bloody violence and abject horror.

ebook

First published August 17, 2015

About the author

Andrew Dudek is the author of the Dave Carver series of urban fantasy novels. Currently he lives with his family in that most terrifying of places: New Jersey. He’s also really not as mentally disturbed as he may seem. Promise.

Reviews

[chucklesthescot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dave has always considered the Bronx home, in spite of its problems but all that changes when the disappearances start. There are too many for it all to be down to runaways and the local people start living in fear and refusing to go out at night or go anywhere alone. Life changes for Dave when he comes home just before dark to find his mother murdered. A street kid called Nate explains about the vampires hunting people and invites Dave to join his group of vampire hunters.

Dave is very much a normal teenager who is making the best of his life. He talks about the feeling of dread hanging over the city but is able to forget about it at times-until that darkness takes his mother. With no family, Dave is alone and decides to take Nate up on his offer, joining The Family, a group of street kids who have lost loved ones to vampires and seek payback. They live together in an abandoned subway station, stealing to eat and training to survive. It is a decent vampire story.

There wasn't a great deal of focus on the kids and who they were, other than Nate, Maria and Hector. The others were named but we didn't get to meet them which would have added more to the story, but when you read the story you understand why the author chose not to do that. We do meet local tattoo artist Squirrel, who uses tips and gossip to locate possible vampire nest sites for the gang to hunt down. But the vampires are not dumb and start to lay a few traps for the tea.

Decent action scenes, good MC and I liked it overall. With the way it ended, it can be read as a stand alone book or you can continue on to the next one. I'm not sure if I'll look at the next book yet but I did like the story in this one.

[Kimberly L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ugly, evil vampires are back in this book!!

The story takes you along at a decent pace and keeps you interested from beginning to end. Those of you that are hung up on typos, there are a few but give the guy a chance, he's a new Author and frankly the boy has some skills

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just awful. Another vampire-book-with-teens here.

BUT this one is also backed by invasive marketing attempts! Hooray!