Night runner by Max Turner

For most of his life Zack Thomson has lived in a mental hospital - afflicted by a disease that has left him allergic to sunlight and most foods except for the special strawberry milkshakes that Nurse Ophelia makes him everyday.  His world is stable (well as stable as it can get in a mental institution) and he has learnt to enjoy the quiet solitude of living in a world of night, a calm solitude that vanishes when a crazed man on a motorcylce crashes into the hospital and tells him to run.  The next few days are a confused jumble of crazy ideas, bad guys that he never knew existed, and secrets that could destroy his life and his sanity.  Could he really be a vampire, one of those mythology creatures that preys on humans and hides in the dark?  It all seems too goofy and B-grade movie to be true, but Zack is about to discover that there is more in the world than he has ever dreamed of, and if he is to learn more then he must figure out who the good guys are, no matter how hard that might be.

Night runner nearly ended up on the discard pile because it seemed to take too long to get going and because it just felt a little weird to begin with, like the author had started halfway down the first page and expected you to know what had come before.  This soon smoothed out and Night runner turned out to be a good little read - a little mystery, a little thriller, a little twist on the vampire mythology, and although this was in the horror section that was only due to the vampires angle rather than any real homage to the vampire blood and gore (of which there was surprisingly nothing).  It is not clear if there will be lots of other books in this series or if this is a shortlived series, but if you really enjoy a little light reading and enjoy someone with a little twist on the vampire mythology then you may enjoy this read as well.

If you like this book then try:

• End of days by Max Turner
• Glass houses by Rachel Caine
• City of bones by Cassandra Clare
• Burn bright by Marianne de Pierres
• Thirteen days to midnight by Patrick Garman

Reviewed by Erika