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The Withrow Chronicles #1-5
The Complete Withrow Chronicles
Now for the first time, get the entire award-winning comedy horror series The Withrow Chronicles in one box set! Fans of Rick Gualtieri, Jeff Strand, Drew Hayes, Christopher Moore, and John G. Hartness will love this collection of novels about the misanthropic vampire WIthrow Surrett, who goes from dealing with the zombie apocalypse and exchanging recipes at his Homeowners' Association Meeting to becoming the Vampire Lord of North Carolina and saving the world in the process!
Get the entire series here!
1 – Perishables - Winner of the 2012 Laine Cunningham Novel Award!
Everybody hates their Homeowner’s Association, and nobody likes a zombie apocalypse. Put the two together, and Withrow Surrett is having a truly craptastic night. Not to mention the fact that he’s got one big secret to keep from the idiots in his home – Withrow is a vampire.
Perishables is a bust-your-gut funny collection of three stories about trust, human and undead relationships, what community really means, and zombies.
A LOT of freakin’ zombies.
2 - Tooth & Nail - Withrow Surrett, the most sarcastic vampire for a country mile, makes an annual Appalachian pilgrimage to keep tabs on nocturnal colleagues and his last living friend from mortal days. What should be a quiet week among familiar faces quickly fills with undead rednecks, folk magic, murder, a rookie detective and Withrow's own psychotic cousin who insists on trying to help. Because everybody’s got THAT cousin, even a vampire.
As he chases the phantoms of conspiracy and paranoia across moonlit forests, abandoned factories, shadowy back roads and seedy bars - all the quiet little places humans fear to tread - Withrow also struggles with who he wants to be. Can a monster find a place among family and friends?
3 - Deal with the Devil - Durham, North Carolina has industry, commerce, a university education, a heck of a basketball team, a snarky vampire, technopagans, and a masked vigilante…Wait, what?!?
Withrow deals with a rookie superheroine, an extra vampire, friggin’ teenagers, and technopagan witches, all while trying to figure out his place in the world. And kick some ass. A LOT of ass.
4 - Attempted Immortality - Withrow Surrett, cantankerous vampire lord of North Carolina, is passing the long winter nights of the off-season in the sleepy resort town of Sunset Beach. Because where else would a vampire go but the beach? This is no vacation for Withrow and his cousin Roderick, though. They’re hunting down a nest of nasty elder vampires who want to take over the world!
But of course it’s not that simple, because for Withrow, nothing ever is. Withrow and Roderick - and their team of friends old and new - soon learn there are stranger things afoot than vampires' machinations among the dunes of Sunset mysterious mortals, twisted sorceries, and fleeting apparitions. Through sabotage, espionage, and bare-knuckled brutality Withrow must find and stop the elder vampires before they play the ace up their sleeve!
5 - Nobody Gets Out Alive - Withrow, Roderick, the Technopagans, the Book People, and all the rest of Withrow’s friends, allies, and accomplices are back again to bring the fight to their enemies – and to finish it once and for all!
The elder vampires have issued their challenge and Withrow has taken them up on it. Now he and the rest of the gang have teamed up to go to where they’ve always known they shouldn’t the stronghold of the elders, a gated community on the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina. Tucked away behind the high walls and locked gates of their unholy fortress, the elders stand ready to spring their villainy on the unsuspecting modern age and only Withrow stands in their way. Join the fight alongside these unlikely heroes as they risk life, limb, souls, and sanity itself in a no-holds-barred free-for-all against the monsters who stand ready to re-enslave the world!
Get the entire series here!
1 – Perishables - Winner of the 2012 Laine Cunningham Novel Award!
Everybody hates their Homeowner’s Association, and nobody likes a zombie apocalypse. Put the two together, and Withrow Surrett is having a truly craptastic night. Not to mention the fact that he’s got one big secret to keep from the idiots in his home – Withrow is a vampire.
Perishables is a bust-your-gut funny collection of three stories about trust, human and undead relationships, what community really means, and zombies.
A LOT of freakin’ zombies.
2 - Tooth & Nail - Withrow Surrett, the most sarcastic vampire for a country mile, makes an annual Appalachian pilgrimage to keep tabs on nocturnal colleagues and his last living friend from mortal days. What should be a quiet week among familiar faces quickly fills with undead rednecks, folk magic, murder, a rookie detective and Withrow's own psychotic cousin who insists on trying to help. Because everybody’s got THAT cousin, even a vampire.
As he chases the phantoms of conspiracy and paranoia across moonlit forests, abandoned factories, shadowy back roads and seedy bars - all the quiet little places humans fear to tread - Withrow also struggles with who he wants to be. Can a monster find a place among family and friends?
3 - Deal with the Devil - Durham, North Carolina has industry, commerce, a university education, a heck of a basketball team, a snarky vampire, technopagans, and a masked vigilante…Wait, what?!?
Withrow deals with a rookie superheroine, an extra vampire, friggin’ teenagers, and technopagan witches, all while trying to figure out his place in the world. And kick some ass. A LOT of ass.
4 - Attempted Immortality - Withrow Surrett, cantankerous vampire lord of North Carolina, is passing the long winter nights of the off-season in the sleepy resort town of Sunset Beach. Because where else would a vampire go but the beach? This is no vacation for Withrow and his cousin Roderick, though. They’re hunting down a nest of nasty elder vampires who want to take over the world!
But of course it’s not that simple, because for Withrow, nothing ever is. Withrow and Roderick - and their team of friends old and new - soon learn there are stranger things afoot than vampires' machinations among the dunes of Sunset mysterious mortals, twisted sorceries, and fleeting apparitions. Through sabotage, espionage, and bare-knuckled brutality Withrow must find and stop the elder vampires before they play the ace up their sleeve!
5 - Nobody Gets Out Alive - Withrow, Roderick, the Technopagans, the Book People, and all the rest of Withrow’s friends, allies, and accomplices are back again to bring the fight to their enemies – and to finish it once and for all!
The elder vampires have issued their challenge and Withrow has taken them up on it. Now he and the rest of the gang have teamed up to go to where they’ve always known they shouldn’t the stronghold of the elders, a gated community on the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina. Tucked away behind the high walls and locked gates of their unholy fortress, the elders stand ready to spring their villainy on the unsuspecting modern age and only Withrow stands in their way. Join the fight alongside these unlikely heroes as they risk life, limb, souls, and sanity itself in a no-holds-barred free-for-all against the monsters who stand ready to re-enslave the world!
1316 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 29, 2020
About the author
Michael G. Williams
30 books86 followersMichael G. Williams writes queer-themed science fiction, urban fantasy, and horror celebrating monsters, macabre humor, and subverted expectations. He’s the author of three series for Falstaff Books: the award-winning vampire/urban fantasy series The Withrow Chronicles; a new urban fantasy series featuring real estate, time travel, and San Francisco’s most beloved historical figures, SERVANT/SOVEREIGN; and the science fiction noir A Fall in Autumn, winner of the 2020 Manly Wade Wellman Award.
Michael is an avid podcaster, activist, and gaymer, and is a brother in St. Anthony Hall and Mu Beta Psi. He lives in Durham, NC, with his husband, a variety of animals, and more and better friends than he probably deserves.
Michael is an avid podcaster, activist, and gaymer, and is a brother in St. Anthony Hall and Mu Beta Psi. He lives in Durham, NC, with his husband, a variety of animals, and more and better friends than he probably deserves.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 8, 2026
This took me a literal year to read. Mainly that was due to the sheer size of the volume and the infrequency of my reading, but another contributing factor was that, after the first novel, the book didn't hook me as much. I really enjoyed the concept of the first novel - a vampire just living his unlife when zombies attack. It was a fun premise and I admit I took a liking to Withrow almost right away. You don't see many fat vampires (if any), and his wit was really enjoyable. I loved how saucy he was while still having a sort of dry sense of humor. The support characters were a pretty interesting too for the most part. I like how this author writes capable women, strong but not immune to flaws.
As I moved through the books, I had no real complaints about the plot of them. Some were more interesting than others, but none of them actually grabbed me the way the first one did. They sort of built up Withrow's world and did some character development as they built towards a conclusion in the last novel. The only plot concern I had is that things got a bit convoluted towards the end. It was like the author had a vague plan to connect all the books and the connections got a bit fuzzy and confusing. There are some things I'm still not 100% clear on, and while I'm willing to accept the conclusion for what it was, it wasn't particularly satisfying.
Overall, I would recommend this whole series, but perhaps read as single books. The compendium is really useful, but it was a LOT, and because some of the books weren't quite so enthralling, it might have been easier to just take them one at a time.
As I moved through the books, I had no real complaints about the plot of them. Some were more interesting than others, but none of them actually grabbed me the way the first one did. They sort of built up Withrow's world and did some character development as they built towards a conclusion in the last novel. The only plot concern I had is that things got a bit convoluted towards the end. It was like the author had a vague plan to connect all the books and the connections got a bit fuzzy and confusing. There are some things I'm still not 100% clear on, and while I'm willing to accept the conclusion for what it was, it wasn't particularly satisfying.
Overall, I would recommend this whole series, but perhaps read as single books. The compendium is really useful, but it was a LOT, and because some of the books weren't quite so enthralling, it might have been easier to just take them one at a time.
Displaying 1 of 1 review