Only the Dead Know Brooklyn

by Chris Vola

Ryan Driggs has lived in Brooklyn for 128 years, 96 of them as one of the last members of a tribe of blood-eating immortals who have called the borough home since before colonial times. Besides the occasional hard-to-control thirst, his life in the twenty-first century is uneventful, until he meets Jennifer, a human from Manhattan with whom he falls in love.

Unable to leave Brooklyn without reverting back to his original, cancer-stricken human state, Ryan knows he must tell Jennifer who and what he really is. But before he can find the words, she is kidnapped by a tribe of Manhattan vampires and Ryan discovers that, for a reason unknown to him, he is a target too. After contacting the oldest member of his tribe, a former slave named Frank Lafayette, and after an attempt on their lives that leaves two of Frank s employees dead, Ryan realizes he s been thrust into a world that is more dangerous than anything he d imagined.

As he travels to Manhattan to rescue Jennifer, forsaking his immortality, he gets caught up in a roller coaster of violence, lies, manipulation, and a power struggle that stretches back thousands of years. In a world where conspiracies are more than just theories and where he is the key to an ancient secret, Ryan must decide to fight or forsake both of the species he s called his own.

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Genres: Horror, Fantasy

291 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 2017

About the author

Chris Vola is a writer and bartender living in Manhattan.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a mess, really. Starts off very well, very promising and then loses its way. Then it regroups a bit and starts to shine again before falling off yet again. Vola isn't particularly strong at writing action scenes and it's a bit hard to parse out just what the heck is going on--the overarching scheme that drives everything in the book. But his tale of vampire-like creatures in New York, limited to the boundaries of their boroughs, and the history behind this, is largely entertaining. I just wish the whole package had lived up to the early promise. I might read another book in this universe, but hopefully, Vola will have a stronger hold on things next time around.

[trinity · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did enjoy the twist on the vampires, how they come to be, how they die, how they change, powers, but it wasn't romanticized at all. The story mainly revolved around the supernatural parts which wasn't very interesting in itself. I didn't like that the author drowned us with details, and in depth descriptions for every little thing that was happening in the story. There wasn't enough background information for the characters. The "wow factors" were too predictable. The addition of so many characters at once, some irrelevant, confused me in staying on track with the story line. I feel like choice of names, basic names, made this even more confusing. I also thought Ryan was a bit of a wus and just boring overall. At the end of the day it didnt leave me wanting more, but it wasn't so bad that I had to DNF the book. I was more just reading to read and not for enjoyment.

[Jennifer Ulrich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was more excited reading the jacket cover than the story itself. While the supernatural concept was interesting, Ryan lost his powers early, and things dragged on. The jacket cover posed the question, would you give up your own life to save the life of someone you love? Well, that's what happened, but it wasn't as romanticized as it's made out to be, he didn't really save Jennifer, and in the end nothing changed. Overall, meh.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent mystery that kept me guessing until the very end. Sexy, exciting, fast paced...everything you need in a summer read plus...vampires! Yes, vampires. But not Bela Lugosi vampires...strong, brooding, handsome vampires that love their girlfriends enough to give up immortality.