Vampire Detective Midnight Collection One: Books #1-3

Vampire Detective Midnight #1-3

by J.C. Andrijeski

The first THREE (3) books in the VAMPIRE DETECTIVE MIDNIGHT series! Eyes of Ice (Book #1)
Midnight Fight (Book #2)
The Prescient (Book #3) * EYES OF ICE (Book #1): Nick Midnight, homicide detective, just got transferred to New York City. The government owns him. Then again, humans own all vampires these days. Cops are “Midnights.” Scientists “Galileos.” Soldiers “Centurions.” Things will be different in New York. No complications. No kids needing his help. None of that human-vampire-psychic crap that turned him evil for nearly a century. He’d keep his head down, do his job for the NYPD, and hunt down murderers. But Nick’s first big case involves an illegal species that could get him killed. And another kid who needs his help. Because of course. Then Wynter James shows up. A gorgeous, sexy, seer-human hybrid, Wynter treats Nick like she already knows him, like they’ve known one another for years. Nick wants her, bad, but he’d be a fool to go there, and not only because she’s a potential suspect in his case. Just dating her would break the law and could get them both killed. She’s Nick’s worst nightmare. She’s everything he swore he’d never do again. Meanwhile, the case keeps going sideways⏤more dead hybrid kids, graffiti that tells the future, a conspiracy involving the richest humans in New York. If Nick can’t find some way through he’ll end up back on the run, in that dark place he thought he’d finally left behind. * MIDNIGHT FIGHT (Book #2): “A hundred thousand to fight. Twice that, if you win.” Walking up to Nick at the underground vampire fights, a well-dressed promoter hands Nick a card, offering him a bucketload of cash for a few hours’ work.

All he has to do is fight another vampire. If Nick can pull it off, he might have a lead on a big new case. Someone in the boxing circuit is murdering vampires, selling their parts on the black market, dumping their desiccated bodies outside the city dome. The NYPD doesn’t have a clue who’s behind it, and the lead detective wants Nick to use his new “in” to get inside the exclusive fight community. Of course, Nick’s new hybrid girlfriend, Wynter James, hates everything about this plan. Nick’s not even supposed to be there; he’s still officially suspended from his last big screw-up with the racial authorities. He decides to risk it anyway, and by the end of the first match, half the underground boxing community knows who he is. Unfortunately, the vampire-harvesting crew has their eye on Nick, too. * THE PRESCIENT (Book #3): Nick swore he’d never bite her. He swore he’d never make her addicted to his blood. An explosion rocks a famous building in Manhattan, blowing out whole floors, panicking the entire city. While everyone assumes terrorism, it looks like a robbery gone wrong, but no one knows what they tried to steal, or if they went there to commit murder. Nick has no leads⏤just a dead human, and the dead human’s business partner, the city’s star architect, an eccentric vampire named Straven. He’s also got Malek, a prescient seer who paints the future, and who desperately wants to warn Nick about this case. Unfortunately, Mal is strange as hell, cryptic to the point of infuriating, and doesn’t understand his own prescient paintings well enough to explain them to Nick. None of that bothers Nick as much as Wynter. After everything that happened during his last big case, Nick forced himself to break things off with her to keep her safe, and both of them out of prison. Most of all, he did it to keep her safe from him, and the fact that seers become addicted to vampire venom. When Wynter shows up at a hip vampire club while Nick’s interviewing suspects, not only is it hard as hell to see her, but she doesn’t walk in alone.

1198 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2021

About the author

Also publishes under the name Julie Light


JC Andrijeski is a USA TODAY bestselling author who writes sexy, apocalyptic and cyberpunk-y science fiction romance and mystery books, often with a metaphysical bent. Current works include the gritty, epic, psychic warfare romance, ALLIE'S WAR, which follows Allie Taylor and her antihero partner, Revik, in their attempts to save the world from a dark, psychic force. Her dystopian science fiction romance series, ALIEN APOCALYPSE, features Jet Tetsuo, survivor and slave under alien conquerors, and her GATE SHIFTER series is about a shape-shifting alien and a tough-girl PI from Seattle. Her newest launch is QUENTIN BLACK, a science fiction romance and mystery series that’s a spin-off from Allie’s War but set in our own version of Earth.

JC has a background in journalism, history and politics, travels extensively and has lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia, and from coast to coast in the continental United States. She currently lives in Bangkok, Thailand.

To learn more about me and my writing, please visit http://jcandrijeski.com. For more about the Allie's War series, visit http://allieswarseries.com

If you want to get an automatic email when JC's next book is released, join THE REBEL ARMY at tinyurl.com/JCAndrijeski.

Reviews

[Mandy (MP Book Reviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection of the first three books in the Vampire Detective Midnight series by JC Andrijeski. In it we read about the adventures of Naoko "Nick" Tanaka is a vampire homicide detective recently transferred to the NYPD where he works in the employ of the human police. Individual book reviews follow:

#1 - Vampire Detective Midnight - 5*

Naoko "Nick" Tanaka is a vampire homicide detective recently transferred to the NYPD where he works in the employ of the human police. Described as a "Midnight" he gets his food delivered to the government housing he lives in. His wish is to be left alone and be able to work in peace but after just two weeks it all goes sideways when paintings start to appear on the street predicting murders with great accuracy before they happen. He becomes embroiled in the artist, dead hybrid-humans, a school principal who unsettles him and a conspiracy involving a very prominent and rich New York family. As he gets sucked into it all further will he survive or get re-programmed?

I absolutely loved this brand new series from this author which had a lot of grit, determination, drama, danger and raw emotions from the characters. I can't wait to find out what happens to Nick next and see where the stories take him. You can tell from the way he behaved in this story that he is going to be right there in the thick of anything happening in the future. Well written this was really enjoyable and I think would appeal to those who have enjoyed the Bridge and Sword series as well as new readers to the author.

#2 - Eyes of Ice - 5*

Nick is pulled into the world of underground boxing to help solve a case where they drain vampires for their blood and venom before extracting their hearts and tossing them outside of the safety of the dome. He might still be suspended but that doesn't stop him from getting involved, now he needs to reassure his girlfriend who now believes he has a death wish - especially as he does everything he can to avoid talking to her about whatever it is that is happening between them. Can Nick survive the ring and can he keep his relationship at arm's length?

This was a very dramatic instalment of the series with sections of graphic violence and sexual content in places. In this book we see Nick doing what he does best - going all in trying to find out who is behind the vampire harvesting/killing even if it puts himself in mortal danger. He also sticks true to form and doesn't handle relationships very well which was maddening to the point I could have throttled him at times!! Well written and easy to understand the thoughts and emotions that the characters were experiencing (even if I didn't always agree with them). If I had the chance to give Nick a message through the pages, it would be to stop being a dick and see what he has. Definitely recommended.

#3 - The Prescient - 5*

Vampire detective Nick associates with a few seers currently in his life including one who might come across as antisocial but has a talent for painting things before they happen (even though he only knows to paint it and not what it means). The latest one is of a bomb doing off in downtown New York however by the time Nick sees it, it is too late. With no leads apart from the painting, a murdered human who is the partner of eccentric vampire Straven (star designer and architect) he has little to go on. Soon it is apparent that a robbery gone wrong is not the right conclusion to make as it is something far more sinister with very far-reaching consequences. As part of the investigation, Nick will have to go too close to a life he thought he had left behind and he will see his ex-girlfriend with a new vampire boyfriend in a hip vampire club which sends Nick almost over the edge. Can Nick solve the case, work things out with Wynter and survive all the obstacles thrown at him?

OMG - so many surprises and intrigue for the future. I won't put any spoilers in here, but I'm relieved how some of this story went although there are some worries for the future there too. Keeping my fingers crossed for the characters in the future. I loved the detailed way that elements of the story were slowly peeled back (like layers in an onion) and the relationships that were built for the future between Nick and the humans he works with within the police. I loved what happened between Nick and Wynter (sorry can't say more). Well written and very easy to understand and feel, I'm wondering what is going to happen next in this very detailed world in the mind of the author. I just know it's going to be great.

[Katheyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The “Vampire Detective Midnight Box Set” compiles into a single volume the first three books of this amazing series by J.C. Andrijeski, featuring Naoko “Nick” Tanaka, a former recurring character in her “Quentin Black Series” into his ‘brand-new-life’ as a so-called ‘Midnight: a state-regulated vampire, who works the night-shifts assisting the human police with ‘special’ cases. Nick Tanaka is a very complex character, who those who are already acquainted with Andrijeski’s “Quentin Black” series have previously encounter, there Tanaka was, to be brutally honest more often than not a dislikable character, until he gradually became a little more likable. However, Nick ‘Midnight’ Tanaka is a very different Tanaka, or should I say, a much more evolved Tanaka, not only someone we learn to like along the pages, but even someone we honestly more than like.

Tanaka is the embodiment of a Japanese-like hero, the one who manages to save the day, because is the right thing to do, without needed any other reason, even when ending up in probably even a worse position he was in in the very first place. Tanaka wanted to be left alone, but unfortunately for him fate has other plans and his first case proves to be almost more that he can chew. As the plot develops, he drifts deeper and deeper into a chain of events he can hardly fight. But despair not, his following cases are even harder to crack 😉 Tanaka has his life cut out for him, wherever he goes 😉

JC Andrijeski has the rare ability to create whole new worlds, alien and familiar at the same time with interesting characters, that captivate our attention page after page. Her writing style is delightful as always, fluid, fast paced and vivid, which helps to get across the action elements without disregarding the more subtle romantic aspects of the story. “Vampire Detective Midnight” is another wonderful series for mature readers that appreciate multidimensional characters and new perspectives.

This Box Set includes the first three instalments in the series:

"Vampire Detective Midnight" (VDM #1)
Nick Tanaka has just arrived in New York, and gotten accustomed to his new job as a ‘Midnight’, a vampire working the nightshift and helping the NYPD with its most ‘unusual’ cases, the ones involving supernaturals. His first case pertains hybrids found dead and strange graffiti that seems to predict the future; and thus, barely after two weeks in the force, Tanaka realizes that his idea of ‘be let alone, and just do his job’ will simply not do. As the case evolves, links to the rich New Yorker elite and the female school principal whom Tanaka rapidly realizes to have more than a ‘professional’ interest in, shows that Nick Tanaka just left the ‘frying California pan’ to fall heads in into the ‘New Yorker fire’.

"'Eyes of Ice" (VDM #2)
Nick Tanaka survived his first assignment (not this is not a spoiler 😉 this is the second book in ‘Tanaka’s’ series, thus… of course he is still ‘alive’); his second one brings him into the world of illegal underground boxing. As vampire bodies drain of blood, keep appearing on the city, the department seeks Tanaka’s help, somehow reinstalling him in the process (after his suspension, sorry that ‘might’ or not be a spoiler 😊). What the department doesn’t know is that Tanaka was already involved in the case, helping one of his friends. The case threats not only Tanaka’s well-being, but also his romantic relationship with her fresh-backed girlfriend, who by now is fully convinced that Nick has a death wish… which honestly is not the case, ‘death just happens to be his gift’

"The Prescient" (VDM #3)
After two extremely dangerous and draining cases Tanaka deserves some reprieve, instead he gets a high-profile case: one of the richest man in the city has been killed in a building bombing. Yes, Tanaka is that ‘lucky’, and to make things even more interesting Straven, the principal lead in the case and a very eccentric vampire, seems to have a very personal interesting in Tanaka himself, who tries to play along to resolve the case, while getting deep and deeper into Straven’s world. Along the way Tanaka discovers secrets he rather had kept unknown, while getting dangerous closer to his former life on the other side of the law divide.

[Gab · Rating 5 out of 5]

VAMPIRE DETECTIVE MIDNIGHT
After reading the first chapters of this book I thought, if that is the world Nick has to deal with, I don't want to know about it!
But, being a longtime addict to Ms Andrijeski's stories, I plodded on. And what do you know, she did it again!
When my stomach started to rumble, I realized I had skipped dinner and it was time to sleep. Let me tell you, I wouldn't skip a meal on purpose for anyone! As she does seemingly effortless, Ms Andrijeski sucked me into this story. Leaving, artfully, little hidden hints. A sentence, a couple words to spread a whiff of things to come, while developing a tale of who-done-it that will keep you guessing until the bitter end.
And at the last page I was left with the usual question: what, that's it? I want to know more!
I always fall into her fascinating word-traps!
EYES OF ICE
Oh Nick!
You just can't keep out of trouble. Or is trouble following you? I guess both.
Not even allowed to go back to work, going crazy sitting in his apartment, he gets a surprise hall-pass for one night of "fun".
He lands himself a new hobby and some life threatening new "friends".
This new, or rather old world, he's stuck in, slowly begins to reveal some surprising secrets. Not much he can take at face value.
And then there's his love life. As long as he has been a Vampire, he still navigates it stuck to his old beliefs about himself from before he was turned. He won't even accept a good thing when it is shoved in his face.
But that's Nick for you. A great detective, rubbish at just living. Wait, he isn't living, at being dead, undead, ... ?
THE PRESCIENT
What are two, three days in the life of a vampire. I mean in the grand scheme of things? Nothing.
Well, not if the Vampire is Naoko Tanaka, Midnight for the NYPD, and Ms Andrijeski is the author of the story.
She manages to cram dire predictions, murder, greed, espionage, prejudice, explosions, old fashioned detective-work paired with high tech gadgets, friendship, and a torrid love affair into that short amount of time.
The leftover spaces are filled with all kinds of people. Hm, no. Persons. No. Okay, to gather them all together, let me call "them" sentient beings.
And let me tell you, they are drawn with a fine brushstroke every one of them.
As eccentric as "they" might be!

[Kristen Lewendon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vampire Detective Midnight
I need to figure out how to reprogram the system so that I can rate something at greater than 5/5 stars. This book had me twisted in knots trying to outthink it. I failed miserably since I didn’t see any of that coming. There’s just something about Nick that I have adored since the very first book in the Quentin Black universe I read. I’m not quite caught up on that thread, so this was a little bit of a spoiler for me. I loved this book. I really don’t know what else to say. I’m caught in my usual place: the more I loved a book, the fewer words I have about it. The characters are complex with multi-faceted motivations, and emotions that are far too real at times. The setting is a gritty, ‘1984’ feeling world that I hope never to live in, in spite of the fact that our own societies are starting to look all too much like the one where we find Nick. And now, after reading the teaser for the next book, I’m completely rabid to get my hands on it.
Eyes of Ice
I am at a complete loss for words. This story sucked me in from the very first words. Heck! From the very first words of the teaser in the previous book. My only option was to hold on tight as I was taken for the ride of my life. I can’t even explain what my favorite parts of the parts of the book were since they’ll all land me firmly in spoiler territory. Suffice it to say, that while working to solve the case and fighting for his life, Nick uncovers some shocking revelations. The ending to this story has left me stunned and it will likely take me a while to recover. But when I do, I’ll be dying to know what happens next.
The Prescient
I have been utterly robbed of words. I love Nick! I think I have loved him from the very beginning and this book has only further cemented my opinion. This story spins out in a twisted flurry of action, drama, and intrigue taking us deep into places in vampire society I didn’t expect we’d get to go. I love the way this takes everything we thought we knew at the end of the last book and tips it all ever so slightly on its head and, at least for the moment, straightens out one of Nick’s most horribly bad decisions of the previous book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author.

[The Mysterious Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

It had me at hello, or in this case, the publisher’s blurb for book 1 in this series which described it as a “futuristic, dystopian New York populated by vampires, humans and psychics”. JC Andrijeski’s Vampire Detective Midnight series is the perfect mix of science fiction, paranormal vampire, and detective novel genres. It definitely has it all, and it is all pretty darn spectacular. Perfectly written and with a fantastic lead character (Naoko “Nick” Tanaka, the eponymous Vamp detective), superb supporting cast, and in visual novels with exciting plot (which even have romance) and a fantastic story arc. The “it” is also pretty darn wonderful reading fun. If you’ve not read these books before then this initial collection is definitely the best way to get them as the books are highly addictive so you’ll undoubtedly not want to stop at one. As for the collection itself, it is definitely one to read, and it is very easy to highly recommend.

[Ruth Marie Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off I totally feel sorry for Nick. With that said this vampire was turned and forced to kill for a living. He finally buys his way out of that to go into police work. Now if course we humans hate vampires and so he is on a leash so to speak. He just wants to do his job and go home like the rest of us. Of course the bad guys have other ideas to prevent that. These are his adventures in trying to be a good detective and just living.
I am more than ready for book 4.

[susan donohue · Rating 5 out of 5]

See reviews of second collection. This is where we are introduced to detective midnight(kinda a racist designation for vampires) who takes the lead in the supernatural investigation of his precinct of NYC .

[GAIL KAGAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

intriguing

Imagine a world fractured by a cataclysmic event, where the remnants of humanity cling to survival in the shadow of a post-elliptic landscape. In this world, where prejudice and fear reign, a vampire detective walks a dangerous line

[Linda S. Clary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting and original concept

One of the most original takes on the vampire genre that I've read in a long time.
Riveting suspense, action and romance.