Stake

by Kevin J. Anderson

Vampire hunter or serial killer? That depends on whether vampires exist . . .Simon Helsing believes the only way to stop a bad guy with fangs is a good guy with a stake. He has devoted his life to ridding the world of vampires. He hunts them, finds their daytime lairs, and pounds a stake through their hearts.Lexi Tarada wants to believe. She's desperate to prove that the strange and impossible can be real. She runs a website for the unexplained and tries to sift through the crazy conspiracy theories to find out what is - or might be - real.Detective Todd Carrow is a skeptic. Haunted by visions of brutal killings from a previous case, he sees the latest gruesome murders as nothing more than the actions of a madman targeting innocents. Helsing is convinced he's doing good, but what if vampires aren't real and Carrow is right?

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Fantasy, Suspense, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 4, 2020

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vampire hunter or serial killer? That depends on whether vampires exist . . . Simon Helsing believes the only way to stop a bad guy with fangs is a good guy with a stake. He has devoted his life to ridding the world of vampires. He hunts them, finds their daytime lairs, and pounds a stake through their hearts. Lexi Tarada wants to believe. She's desperate to prove that the strange and impossible can be real. She runs a website for the unexplained and tries to sift through the crazy conspiracy theories to find out what is - or might be - real. Detective Todd Carrow is a skeptic. Haunted by visions of brutal killings from a previous case, he sees the latest gruesome murders as nothing more than the actions of a madman targeting innocents. Helsing is convinced he's doing good, but what if vampires aren't real and Carrow is right?


This was such an intense, page-turner of a read; although I was unhappy with the ending and I'm left with questions but nevertheless it was an enjoyable read - it just seems unfinished.

[OutlawPoet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wasn’t sure when I started this one. I mean…vampire novels with characters named Helsing (or some variation thereof) are a dime a dozen. I didn’t expect anything unique. However, I kind of liked the idea of the website dealing with bizarre things and I took the plunge.

I’m glad I did.

While you start out thinking it’s kind of standard vampire fare, the author twists things a bit, leaving you uncertain about the truth of certain things. I won’t tell you what is or isn’t true – I’ll just say that the uncertainty really adds some spice to the read. I was so anxious to find out if I was right about things.

Fast paced, characters I really loved, and a variation on a common theme that I enjoyed!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

[Rowena Hoseason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine you’re a vampire hunter, trying to eradicate an unmitigated menace. To the creatures that you hunt, you’re the ultimate enemy. To the modern world, you’re a psychopathic serial killer. When objective truth is blurred by personal perceptions, either extreme could be possible. That’s the entertaining premise for Stake, a fast-paced and playful page-turner about the potential existence of blood-sucking supernatural night-stalkers.

Blogger Lexi debates and debunks weird experiences online, and can’t resist a mystery of ritualised killings. Serial killer ‘Simon Helsing’ is completely convinced – firstly that vampires exist, and secondly that he needs to exterminate them. The story zigzags between these two and the sceptical police detective who is investigating this string of bizarre homicides – murders of nightshift workers and isolated shut-ins, people who rarely see the light of day. People who might easily be mistaken for vampires. Or who might actually be vampires.

To add more intrigue, we meet well-equipped survivalists hiding in the wilderness, waiting for civilisation to crumble. They’re more than ready to defend themselves against vampires – or the federal government.

Then there’s the seriously creepy pizza delivery guy who only comes out after dark. Lexi’s quest to discover if there’s something more than meets the eye draws her into a cleverly constructed conundrum, where these mysterious interests overlap. There’s definitely a lot at stake (…sorry!)

Stake cleverly blends the keynotes of gothic vampire tradition with all the existential angst of modern online life. Do vampires actually exist? You’ll need to read right to the very end to find an answer…
8/10

There are more reviews of crime-thrillers over at http://www.murdermayhemandmore.net - seeya!

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was okay. I liked the line the reader had to straddle- serial killer or vampire hunter? It just read a bit flat - nothing about Det. Carrow seemed authentic and I didn't care for Lexi at all.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of me thought this was setup for a new series of books. I enjoy Kevin’s books. This one took on a different angle of the vampire myth, but there were some B stories that unless this was intended to be a series detracted a bit from the main question Are vampires real?

[Patricia Romero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vampire hunter or serial killer? That depends on whether vampires exist . . .

Simon Helsing (not his real name) does believe. He has proof. And one by one he is staking them out. Literally.

Since a near-death experience in Bosnia years ago, he has tried to warn people about the dreaded lampir. Not many people believe him, but he keeps on killing them. They all work at night. That seems to be his main piece of evidence. He is also a contributor to the online chatroom HideTruth.

HideTruth is the brainchild of Lexi Tarada. She wants to believe and is looking for proof of the unexplained. There are some nutjobs on there, but Simon reaches out to her with proof that vampires are real.

The police have bodies and no belief in vampires. Detective Carrow is sure Simon is a serial killer. When the Vampire King (in Simon’s mind) throws his annual gala, it seems a good time for Lexi, Carrow, and Simon to come together. But not all of them are coming out alive.

This felt rushed to me and the ending was abrupt and left me with a lot of questions.



NetGalley/ Severn House

[Soraya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise was great and I think the book is worth reading as long as you go into it not expecting some legendary work of fiction. The writing style missed the mark for me and it read a little juvenile for my taste. There were points it seemed like the author used the thesaurus feature on Microsoft Word with how out of pocket the flow was. At the end of the day, this was a page turner, even if I could see a few things coming. The detective came across as bumbling and seemed underdeveloped IMO. I think if the book had been a little bit longer and gone through a little more editing it would have been more fleshed out. If not for the writing style I might have rated it 4 stars. Also the Bigfoot thing…not my favorite.

[LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!" · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thanks to Severn House, Kevin J. Anderson and Netgalley. I enjoyed this book. Alexis is definitely someone I could identify with. I believe in ghosts, spirits, whatever! I believe because I've experienced it. End of...But, I also understand why she is open to other possibilities. When weird happens, then who's to say that other things aren't possible? I liked that she was skeptical, but ready to be proven wrong. That's me in a "nut" shell! This isn't a scary book. At all! It is suspenseful! I kept asking myself, is Helsing a nut! It is he sane? You be the judge! I felt the end was anticlimactic. That was a bit of a bummer! Still, I enjoyed the book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lexi Tarada runs the website HideTruth, an online forum for people to discuss the weird and unexplained, everything from Bigfoot sightings to government coverups. Lexi is open-minded, she hasn’t firmly committed but, to quote the X-Files, she wants to believe. User handle Stoker1897 doesn’t just believe in vampires, he knows they exist and it is his calling to hunt them down and kill them. All Detective Carrow believes is that the morgue is filling up with people who used to work the night shift before someone drove a stake through their heart or cut their head off and filled their mouth with garlic. But who is right, Stoker1897 or Detective Carrow? Lexi doesn’t know, but she needs to find out. What if this is the one time the rumours and conspiracies are right?
Stake is told from three different points of view, Lexi’s, Carrow’s, and Stoker1897 who also calls himself Simon Helsing. It’s also told using flashbacks to Helsing’s life in the army and how he came to believe vampires are real. There are no points of view from a vampire’s point of view. In fact, there is very little evidence, other than circumstantial, to suggest that vampires are real other than what Helsing has gathered. This means the reader is never certain whether Helsing is the hero he thinks himself to be or the serial killer Carrow is convinced he is, and that makes for a really good read.
The story plays out like one of Lexi’s discussions on her forum. For every argument Helsing has that someone is a vampire, a paramedic who only works nights and has, in his opinion, a higher than average number of deaths on route to the hospital, Carrow finds counter-evidence, such as the paramedic’s continual requests to move to the day shift where the call outs are less life-threatening. Lexi straddles the middle ground, ready to listen to them both, look at their evidence and make a decision for herself.
If it was just a case of Helsing’s word against Carrow, we would probably side with Carrow pretty quickly, but Helsing is backed by a group of survivalist doomsday preppers, called Bastion, who also believe in vampires. And while Carrow has the coroner verifying the corpses are human, Lexi asks questions that challenge the science, like would we really know what we were looking for in DNA to separate human from vampire?
Stake incorporates characteristics from the vampire genre to play to the reader’s expectations. Lexi is invited to a party of a wealthy, reclusive older man who donates to her website, and her flatmate providers her with a white Victorian lace dress and choker. It creates a strong image of the original vampire stories with the innocent lured into the vampire’s den and is a lot of fun. It adds to the question of the story and what genre it fits in if we were going to do something as limiting as genre pigeon-holing; is this a vampire or a serial killer horror?
This is a spoiler-free review, so I’m not going to tell you. What I will tell you is I really enjoyed this and would not only recommend it to anyone who’ll sit still long enough for me to tell them about it, but read it again myself.

[Joanne Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to #NetGalley and #KevinJAnderson for the opportunity to read and review "Stake".

I have read Mr. Anderson's "Dan Shambles Zombie Detective" novels and short stories, so I'm familiar with him as an author.

While the Zombie Detective stories are written with tongue firmly planted in cheek, "Stake" is a different kind of novel altogether.

Alexis Tarada runs a website that exists on sensationalism like "Bigfoot" "Alien Abduction" Vampires Among Us", etc. Her latest stories are about a hiker supposedly attacked and sexually assaulted by "Bigfoot" and postings by someone claiming that vampires are real and live amongst us.

Simon Helsing is a vampire hunter/slayer, convinced that vampires live among us and must be destroyed. He meticulously investigates 'people of the night', those who work and live only in the dark; they must be vampires. He has quite the list and is determined to exterminate them all - including the supposed King of Vampires, multi-millionaire and philanthropist Hugo Zelm. Hugo is a supporter of Alexis Tarada's website, and has invited her to an upcoming gala.

Todd Carrow is called to a homicide, only to find the deceased with a stake through the heart; subsequently, he finds a victim beheaded with his mouth filled with garlic, and then another staked and set on fire.

As the story progresses, Alexis is further drawn into the 'vampires' exposé pushed by Helsing, and her path crosses with Detective Carrow who thinks that she knows more than she's saying, and might even be implicit in the murders.

The story races to it conclusion as all of the characters converge on Zelm's estate and Helsing's story is brought to an end.

I was and remain of two minds about this book. It is well-written and easy to read, but lacks a certain 'oomph' that some vampire novels incorporate; and it certainly lacks the humor of the Zombie Detective stories. But, I would still recommend it to anyone wanting to be entertained by a good story.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a honest and unbiased review*

Hello Fellow Readers,

The Interesting concept of this book is what drove me to read it. First of all Anderson made me ask a lot of questions during this book, the most prominent one being 'Do the Vampires actually exist?' This answer varied depending on whose POV you were reading at the time.

Helsing, the vampire hunter in question, had me wanting to believe they were real. The evidence was compelling. I did not want to believe he was some psycho serial killer. We then have Detective Carrow of course when I read his chapters I found myself second guessing Helsing, and his beliefs. Finally, we have Lexi who is caught in the middle, much like we the reader are. She wants to believe in the impossible but needs to stay skeptical and logical as well. Like Lexi, us readers need to know the truth. I won't discuss the fourth POV mostly because they are not mentioned in the synopsis, but I found them to be interesting as well.

What really made the book interesting was that I couldn't predict what was going to happen. This is like a breath of fresh air, during most mysteries I typically guess the murderer/the plot and it sort of let's the wind out of my sails. I also, really liked Anderson's writing, he made each character their own, plus the plot was driven and believable (yes, despite it being a book about vampires). There were some boring parts, but this happens in books to set up the plot.

There were two things that bothered me, the first was that despite his great writing he repeated himself a lot. It almost made it seem as if he didn't trust the reader to remember what was said. The second was Lexi, there were moments I truly like her and felt a connection with her, other times I just wanted to shake her and ask her what the hell she's doing.

Overall a good book especially if you want a nice driven thriller.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kevin J. Anderson cooks up a mess of intrigue and conspiracy with his vampire tale Stake. The tale follows three different characters, each in their own point of view, as they tackle the question of whether or not vampires exist. Simon Helsing is a self-proclaimed vampire hunter. A former soldier who believes he encountered the bloodsuckers during his tour of duty, Helsing now travels the country to eradicate the vampire menace. Simon's latest round of stakings, taking place in the small area called Colorado Springs, has led police to believe a serial killer is loose in the city. Determined to find an ally, Helsing reaches out to webmanager Lexi Tarada. As host of the HideTruth.com webpage, Lexi offers an open mind about unexplained phenomena; her goal is to find some shred of evidence that something is really out there. While Helsing seeks an alliance, he must also evade Detective Todd Carrow. A hard-boiled cop and skeptic, Carrow is dead-set on finding the murderer plaguing his town. As the three circle each other in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, questions arise over the true threat to Colorado Springs. Kevin J. Anderson sets up what should be an entertaining exploration of fact versus fiction. The conflict over whether or not vampires are real offers a fun plot device, especially when putting skeptics against believers. Unfortunately, the book tends to lean too heavily on that particular trope. The characters are played-out stereotypes that really offer no major conflict, causing the story to trudge ever onward towards its inevitable conclusion. The subplot of a clan of off-the-grid mountaineers who must deal with the actions of their hairy giant is far-more engaging - and feels like it could have been a book unto itself - as opposed to a simple background piece. Stake tries to be a fearsome creature of the night, but ultimately turns to ash in the light of day.

[jeff popple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Famed science fiction and fantasy author Kevin J. Anderson makes an interesting diversion into the horror/crime arena with his latest novel, Stake.

Damaged war veteran ‘Simon Helsing’ thinks that he is waging a war against vampires. Colorado Springs detective Todd Carrow thinks that he has a serial killer on his hands who is targeting nighttime workers while they sleep during the day. Alexis Tarada runs a conspiracy theory website called HideTruth.com and thinks that both of them may be right. Meanwhile, a well organised group of survivalists are trying to keep below the radar in their hideaway camp in the forest and watching what is happening.

Kevin Anderson’s Stake is an enjoyable crime thriller that combines elements of the horror genre with that of the police detective novel. The idea of a modern day vampire hunter who may be inadvertently killing real people is quite clever, and Anderson grounds it sufficiently in the real world to make it work. It takes a little while for Anderson to put the various elements of his story in place, but once underway it moves quite smoothly and the ending offers some good action and suspense, and a couple of neat, if predictable, twists.

Overall, Stake is a very entertaining tale that kept me happily engaged for several hours. See my full review at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/s...

[Suzie Q · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lexi runs a fringe website blog called Hide Truth and is certain there are unexplained mysteries in life and is open minded. She regularly chats with Stoker1897 aka Simon Helsing aka discharged veteran Grundy has been hunting vampires to save the human race and has put his trust in Lexi. Because of her open mind he even meets her in public and passes her a file of supposed vampires he is hunting...only to have the cops take it.

But is he a vampire killer or just delusional serial killer burting people that seem like vampires. Sure they work the night shift and are never seen in the daylight but all too often a vampire could hide in plain sight and blend tight into society.

He has plans to kill one of Lexis biggest benefactors at his annual gala because he could be the lynchpin and king vampire.

All hell breaks loose and the assassination attempt goes awry and an injured Helsing makes a run for it into the woods of Colorado where the secret off grid society he was once part of may take him in and take care of him.

SPOILERS he comes back to finish off Lexi because now he has it in his head the king vampire turned her. Lexi shoots him just as Detective Carrow comes to check on her. They go to check on one last person on the list the European pizza night delivery guy....only to find he's left town in a hurry and his mattress is nothing but dirt.

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do you believe in vampires?

Stake by Kevin J. Anderson is a horror novel about becoming too dedicated to what you do…

This is a story of multiple folks…

The young man and former soldier who hunts vampires in an attempt to battle his tragic PTSD…

The young woman who works as a fact checked for a site dedicated to conspiracy theories and supernatural phenomenon.

Then there’s the detective that just wants to get this over with…

There are vampires in Colorado Springs, and there’s a man hunting them. Aided by the Bastion, a post apocalyptic hippie commune prepares for the end times, he may just succeed…while have to deal with the detective hunting the “vampire killer” and a woman that really wants to know about a Bigfoot attack in pike state forest.

Unfortunately…you can member be sure just what’s going on…as the character strive to find the “vampire king” at the same time they don’t really believe what’s really happening…

[David Shiels · Rating 1 out of 5]

One word to describe this book: Rambling.

This book is filled with pointless descriptions and character thoughts that add nothing at all.

Plot points are repeated so often that I could have skipped 30 pages at a time and still have known exactly what is going on. That little happens in this entire book. Great book if you have severe memory problems.

As for the 'Serial Killer or Vampire Hunter' hook. 99% of the book swings so far one way that when the 'twist' comes, literally right at the end, in a really unsublte and unclever way, you just don't care.

The writing itself is simple and quick to read, but it just drones on and on.

I'm not surprised the author has 165+ books if they were all written in less than a week and padded out like this one to meet a specific word count.

The hardcover is pretty decent quality tho :)

[エヴァ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the fact that book focuses on a different character in each chapter: Simon, a man who wholeheartedly believes its his duty to get rid of vampires. Or who he believes are vampires. Alex, a woman who thinks "maybe the paranormal or supernatural does exist in certain unexplainable circumstances" and gives a chance for others to share their story on her website, HideTruth. Detective Carrow, a man who's goal is to catch the man responsible for these random murders. And not to forget the Bastion, the group of people who believe in vampires just as much as Simon does, however they isolate themselves from civilization to protect themselves from the vampires. The more you read the more insane you view Simon. Even he had me convinced vampires existed in the beginning lol. A great story that won't have you stop reading.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was received as an ARC from Severn House Publishers in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book had both a Buffy essence and a Grimm essence to it which made the book more enjoyable to read. Reading all of the different characters such as Simon, Lexi and Detective Carrow and how their all on the same mission but have different paths to getting there. Ever line, page and chapter I was hooked. Could not wait to see what happens next. The book is extremely engaging and our community will be very receptive towards it.

We will consider adding this title to our Mystery collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

[EM3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun take on the vampire genre. This book is written from three perspectives: a "hero" who is researching/stalking vampires and killing them; the nuts and bolts detective tracking him as a serial killer; the blogger running a cryptid/conspiracy blog. Lots of twists and turns, all 3 of the main characters end up questioning their assumptions. The book wraps up with a great ending. Anderson briefly touches on the lampir mythos; I would have liked to have seen him dive more deeply into that background history.

Text was clean, no crude language or sexual episodes. As you would expect with a vampire tale, there is some explicit violence. I thought that it might continue as a series but, as far as I can tell, this is a freestanding novel. Very well done with a fast pace.

[Louisa Heaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stake by Kevin J Anderson is a fabulous, quick-moving story about a man who believes himself to be killing vampires, but may, in actual fact, just be a deluded serial killer himself.
This was a new take on a vampire story, mixed with a bit of thriller, mystery and horror. I particularly liked the heroine of the story, Lexi, who runs a website called HideTruth, looking into the weird and wonderfulof the world, hoping to encourage real discussion about the mysteries of life and gets dragged into the drama of Simon Helsing, the self-appointed vampire hunter.
Fast-paced, with page-turning quality, I highly recommend this read!

[Bryan Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler ahead.

I really enjoyed this book right up until the last chapter. It was entirely inconsistent with the rest of the novel. Either Lagash is the only vampire stupid enough to use his native earth as a bed, or the cops are so dumb they never looked under the bedsheets a corpse was pinned to.

This was an easy 5 star rating until the final pages. It was an excellent exploration of delusion driving a sad young man to murder and a young woman’s search for identity and meaning in an unmoored world. Then the author had to have a twist that ruined the book for me.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent mix of horror and thriller that kept me hooked.
I liked the descriptions of the world of paranormal investigators as I loved the detective and the vampire hunter.
The plot is fast paced and entertaining, the characters are well developed and the world building is interesting.
It's the first book i read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

[Mark Smith-briggs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kevin J. Anderson premise of a man who believes he is hunting vampires, but may just be a serial killer, is an interesting one.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't quite live up to the premise.
A largely detective style thriller with some horror elements, the book suffers from lacklustre characters and what feels like a rambling plot.
The makings of a good story are here - they just don't quite come out in the wash.

[Holly Sowko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three main characters that intertwine throughout the story. A vampire hunter, a skeptic that wants to believe, and a police officer that is cynical and wants to stop a serial killer. For most of the story you are convinced that vampires aren’t real and the main character is just delusional. I kept reading because it was a good drama. The end had some great twists that improved my take on the book.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the concept, but the characters never really clicked. The idea that vampires are hiding in plain sight, and a rogue vampire hunter is executing them...fun times. But Alexis, who runs the HideTruth unexplained phenomena site, was just not a well developed character, in my opinion, and her desire for unexplained to be true led her to behave naively and recklessly. Overall, a very B-movie story. Thanks, nonetheless, to Netgalley and Severn House for the opportunity to read Stake.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this concept - vampire hunter or serial killer? I flipped both directions through the whole book and the ending was perfect. I also appreciated the questioning of the authenticity of conspiracy theories, though this one focuses on your classic conspiracies like yeti and vampires! There is a seriousness to the book, more so than the Dan Shambles Zombie PI titles.

[Bip Grinklebink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. It's an interesting commentary on conspiracy culture and did keep me intrigued the whole way through. There are parts of the dialogue and writing style I wasn't a fan of, but they were easy enough to overlook.

My only legitimate complaint is that the twist could've been more twisty. If you read the synopsis and it piques your interest, then definitely give this a read.

[CJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prolific author brings his touch to this unique twist to the vampire genre. While this short novel plays like a ‘made-for TV’ movie, Anderson does well in keeping the mystery of killer or hunter going until the inevitable conclusion. And keeping with the style, provides the final twist till the last page.

[Educator · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel has action aplenty and mystery. You will not be disappointed. The story will draw you in and will keep you guessing until the very end. An infinite thriller and hopefully the first of a series,

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's just ok. The story is interesting enough. The writing is a little lack luster. The characters are a little less than believable. The plot is pretty obvious. It's not a bad book, it's just not a great book.