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.
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