Night Runner-Max Turner

Night Runner
Max Turner
St. Martin’s, Sep 1 2009, $9.99
ISBN: 9780312592288

For eight years Zack Thomason lived in Nicholls Ward, the home for the mentally disturbed of the Peterborough Civil Hospital; not because he is crazy, but because of a rare medical condition. Max cannot abide sunlight or food with the only nourishment his body accepts and digests is a drink made by Nurse Ophelia. He obviously sleeps during the day and is awake at night. Thus when a man drives a vehicle through the lobby, Zack hears him state that he has come to see Zack. Before the intruder is shot to death, he warns Zack that “he” is coming for him.

Soon after that incident, his Uncle Max visits Zack, which is a shocker because the youngster thought he had no living relatives. Max explains to Zack that he and the lad’s late father were vampire hunters; which he still is. His father died trying to kill Baron Vrolok, who survived the attack by drinking Zack’s blood; that turned the child into a vampire too. The police under the Baron’s control arrive to take Zack with them, but the driver of the Harley that ran through the door rescues the boy. They get separated and Zack struggles to survive on his own in the outside world. He meets with his mortal friend Charlie who visited him at the ward and with Charlie’s pal and Zach’s love interest Luna unaware the danger he places them in until it is too late; the Baron is coming for his “offspring”.

This is a coming of age urban fantasy as the protagonist adjusts to what he is, what happened to his biological father, dealing with the challenge of his blood sire, and struggling with his natural adversarial relationship with his uncle. He is a good person who must make choices some of which seem bad if he is to survive. Charlie the king of chaos and Luna are there for him as Max Turner provides an enjoyable vampire thriller that will keep his teen audience up late night running alongside of the hero.

Harriet Klausner