PAUL HEATLEY - THE VAMPIRE (2015)

Synopsis/blurb....

WARNING - CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE, SEXUAL CONTENT, SCENES OF VIOLENCE, AND SHOULD NOT BE READ BY ANYONE.

Martin is not a vampire.

He splits his time between selling pornography to a town filled with losers and lowlifes, and sitting the desk of the local motel owned by his aunt's husband and occupied by junkies, dealers, and the prostitute in room sixteen. He is not a bloodsucker, but he lives in darkness in a world where everyone is feeding on everyone else.

Revisiting the town and certain characters of The Motel Whore, The Vampire is a standalone novella about one man in a very bad world.

It will crawl inside your skull, it will live beneath your skin. It will stay with you for days.

I read this one directly after Paul Heatley’s The Motel Whore, which in hindsight was a bit of an error. To say I came away a little bit down might be an understatement.

Joanie was the motel whore, Martin is the vampire working at the same motel, though not earning his corn on his back. He’s the night clerk. Daytime he works at an adult store selling pornography to grown-ups and chasing away adolescents.

A strange relationship exists between Martin and Joensen from the store. Joensen is a bit of a peeper-creeper and is always photographing woman and couples late at night through the gaps in the curtains. There’s always a happy snap or two to show to Martin, before adding to the collection Joensen keeps at home.

Similar to Joanie’s tale we spend time with Martin and again it’s a pretty joyless existence, though we have a little bit more drama to contend with.

Sex, dogs, a clown (maybe), a cowboy (possibly, a witch (perhaps), drug use, an overdose, rape, passiveness, shame, a bit of life saving, more drug use, retribution.

Matter of fact brutality in a harsh environment with unsympathetic characters. It would be hard to say I enjoyed it but it was compelling reading.

The wall is cracked, stained, marked by the hands of the dozen or so occupants that have lived here before Sonia arrived. The paint is old, faded, looks dirty, impossible to tell when it was last freshened, doubtful it ever will be again. The building is falling apart, crumbling around all those who call it home, the junkies and hustlers and whores, the lost and the damned. The building has infected them with its decay, or else they have infected it.

 

4 from 5

The Motel Whore was reviewed here. 

More from Mr Heatley awaits……The Boy, The Mess, The Pitbull, Three, An Eye for an Eye and the recently All Due Respect published Fatboy

His website is here. Facebook here. Twitter - @PaulHeatley3

Read in May, 2017
Published - 2015
Page count - 58
Source - purchased copy
Format - Kindle