This was urban fantasy at its gritty and violent best. Deacon Chalk spends a lot more time talking about weapons and killing the monsters than doing anything else. It all starts when he is lured to an ambush. He does manage to escape along with the human who tried to stake him thinking he was a vampire. This starts Deacon on a quest to find out which vampire targeted him. It would take a very powerful one to control the number of lesser vampires sent after him.Deacon works out of Polecats - a strip club - which he happens to own. It provides some of the financing for his battle. He is also supported in his hunt for monsters by his bartender Father Mulcahy, a priest from one of the militant orders, and various other employees of Polecats. He also brings in the guy who tried to stake him. Once self-titled Nyteblade, Larson becomes more than a reluctant source of information when his mother and sister are captured by the monsters. Larson is a total opposite to Deacon. He is small, slight, completely untrained. However, he does have knowledge about hunting vampires that does come in handy.Deacon was an interesting character but a little one-dimensional. If we were told once, we were told ten times that he was willing to die and, in fact, looked forward to it so that he could be with his dead wife and children. His whole life is killing the monsters until one of them finally kills him. This episode comes pretty close with its climactic battle of good versus evil.One thing I did like at the beginning was the homage to some other urban fantasy titles:There are few proclaimed vampire slayers and they range all kinds. Anita out in St. Louis, but she has a lot of stuff going on, not just vampire executions. Cat and Bones run their crew killing vampires and do a fine job of it. I hear whispers about the blue woman now and again, but it's hard to pull the fact from the fiction on that one.I don't recognize the Blue Woman. If anyone has read that one, I'd like author and title please.If you are looking for gritty urban fantasy with a male main character and are more interested in fighting than emotional depth, this one will satisfy. I think I'll be following along on his future adventures to see if he grows and changes.
