Nightshades

A Paranormal Thriller (Nightshades, Book 1)

By: Melissa F. Olson

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Alex McKenna is the new Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Bureau of Preternatural Investigations - the division tasked with investigating crimes involving shades.

Or vampires, as they're more widely known.

Children have been going missing, and agents are routinely being slaughtered. It's up to McKenna, and some unlikely allies, to get to the bottom of the problem, and find the kids before it's too late.

Nightshades is a new gritty urban fantasy from Melissa F. Olson.

©2016 Melissa F. Olson (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Good storyline but bad narration

Overall the storyline is interesting but the book is too short and I felt really bored listening to rhe narrator, I wish he would have placed more enthusiasm. I just do not recommend this ine sorry.

A short story at a novel's price.

I loved the storyline but was disappointed that there could have been so much more of it and there isn't. Also, it took me a while to get use to this series being completely different than the Scarlet Barnard, Disrupted Magic and Boundary Magic trilogies. I found myself arguing with some of the vampire "facts" because they are so opposite of the above mentioned series and the whole shade saliva thing is just wrong. other than that, I truly did love the story as I have all books by Melissa F. Olson.

Good, but too short

Couldn’t they have combined two of these novels? I like This author’s work, though. Ah, I suppose split the difference between Olson & Gabaldon.

Great story just too short

The only bad thing I have to say is I wish the story had been longer - very enjoyable.

Enjoyable Read!

I REALLY enjoyed this; just disappointed it was so short. I would not call it a Thriller or Suspenseful; I generally avoid both. It's just a uniquely different take on vampires...and since there is (at least one) "good" vampire, I like it.
The more I read (and that's a great deal), the more I look for & appreciate the creativity of a story. The creative mind is a gift & greatly appreciated by this reader.

Nice twist on the usual vampire stories!

I really enjoyed this listen! The different kind of twists from the usual vampire stories was unexpected and enjoyable. The main characters were enjoyable and I found myself rooting for them which is good and as always, Luke Daniels does a fantastic job narrating!
The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because I felt the story had so much more to offer and the author kind of chopped it up a bit at the end where that whole scenario should've been longer imo.

not quite her normal style but not bad

this story takes place on a different time line than her normal stories but not a bad read.

Blade - as a more stylish cop procedural

An unexpectedly excellent listen. This 4 hour novella completes the police procedural arc about missing kids while laying the foundation for the trilogy to deal with a larger vampire vs human conflict. Yes, the characters sometimes veer too much into trope territory. And yes, I feel like there wasn’t enough development to sell the main vampire characters as centuries (or even millennia) old creatures.

But, overall this had a great balance of mystery vs urban fantasy, fun characters, and decent dialogue. Finally, while there’s definitely crime thriller-level violence, this doesn’t devolve into horror-porn or rely on A-hole, F-bomb dropping MCs to sell this as gritty urban fantasy, which I definitely appreciated.

Everybody knows about the Dresdens and Sandman Slims, but If you want to continue off the beaten path with similar cop procedural, vampire urban fantasy stories, I recommend:
☠️Quincy Harker omnibus, if you want to go mouthier gumshoe MC (he’s at least a fun a-hole)
☠️Working Stiff by Rachel Caine, starting a pulpier mystery thriller trilogy involving modern day vampires
☠️Not Dead Yet by Jenn Burke, starting a MM paranormal romance vampire cop procedural
(okay, this last one is very off the beaten path, but still…)

A great start to a new series

I've been reading Melissa Olson's other series, finishing them and wanting more. I had thought this was another spin-off of more vampires, witches, and werewolves but this is not the case. I am, however, not disappointed. It is about vampires and is slowly growing on me. The romance growing between the lead agent and vampire intrigues me and the whole idea of people and vampires coexisting is new, but by the way things ended, I doubt will continue. I'm off to jet more credits to get the next book. BYW, the narrator was okay but pretty bland.

Fun, with enough novelty to be interesting

3.5 stars. Neat concept (vampires, or Nightshades, are real and have been around for millennia, but now modern humans have realized this fact), likable characters, and plenty of action. Some of the story is predictable, and the dialog at times feels straight out of a number of buddy FBI story lines (glib, clever). But it doesn't stop it from being entertaining and the added twist of vampires gives the plot enough freshness and novelty to be thoroughly enjoyable. Biggest con of the book is that it is more like novella length and I would have liked more length and depth. But at least the sequel is already out and a third book in the series is slated for later in 2018.