Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Sudden Death Overtime, Steve Vernon (2012)


Mr. Vernon is a pretty prolific novelette writer.  He's already got 11 titles under his belt, and the twelfth involves vampires and hockey; I know, an odd combination, but it's actually quite entertaining. The entire story is tongue-in-cheek, pages of camp that are designed to crack a smile if not out-rightly make you laugh out loud (I know I did).

The entire story takes place over a week in the small town of Hope's End, near Labrador, Canada, following a group of "old farts" as they contend with the stagnant pace of their lives, each carrying his own inner burden. The one thing that really brings them together is hockey, and they all care for a local rink that the town kids play on. 

It's basically their way of giving back to the community, in order to keep the teenagers in line and stop anyone from blowing a gasket. Small towns definitely have a way of causing bigger blow outs for smaller issues, so it's kind of these guys to do what could be seen as such a small gesture.

But the simplicity and mundane consistency of their lives is abruptly interrupted by the appearance of a devilish black bus. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the bus, how it comes alive and is literally an entity in its own right, never mind the cargo its hauling around. The vampires, using their dark vehicle, slowly begin to eat their way through the town populace, even going so far as to destroy the local church as a safeguard for their own protection. The group of old men are finally clued into the vampires after both the disappearance of one of their own along with a confrontation that brings the toothy predators right into their line of vision - as well as smell, since they end up using garlic to fend off their attackers.

Being the crotchety old codgers that they are, the men don't go down without a fight, using every book and movie trick that they've heard about in order to protect their beloved town from the undead menace. It all eventually culminates in a hockey game to the death, putting not only hockey sticks and skates to new uses, but the very rink itself.

Sudden Death Overtime is available on Amazon for $2.99 in digital format only.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...