Andrew Smith's Reviews > The Gathering

I’d enjoyed two books written by this author (The Burning Girls and The Drift), both were mysteries that were somewhat different to those I normally read - but in a good way, they surprised me and challenged me. So when I started reading this one - without first reading the blurb, just relying on my previous experiences with this writer - I quickly realised that there was a fantasy element here. Now, this is something I try to avoid. It’s something that really switches me off. But I pressed on, for a while…

Set in a small town in Alaska, a detective arrives to investigate a murder. But the twist is that a colony of Vampyrs have recently descended on the community and housed themselves nearby, outside of the town. Twenty-five five year, ago there had been a murder attributed to such a c, lony and the residents of the town had been uneasy about this new group’s arrival, to say the least. This death has all the hallmarks of the previous event. The town residents have already made up their minds andhell-bent bent ‘culling’ the Vampyr community. The visiting cop, though, isn’t so sure.

The characters introduced in the early part of the story are generally strong. I particularly liked the police officer sent to investigate the latest death, a Vampyr specialist - a doctor, in fact. Others, such as the police chief and ex-police , hief are interesting too. But I just couldn’t get past the fact that the book was essentially about Vampyrs and their relationship with humans.

I feel like I’ve cheated the book somewhat as it’s not something I’d have picked up had I read the blurb. So I’m going to award it three stars, even though I usually award only one star for any book I fail to finish. The reason for this is simply that, based on the portion I read, I think for the right aud, ence this story might work well. It’s just not for me.

My thanks to Penguin, Random House for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.